The Beaters
by roguehunter11
Summary: Alone you are weak. Together you are strong. The 'beaters' of SAO realize this but are powerless to change their situation until a certain black haired swordsman comes along. Now Kirito wielding his devil's blade must lead his fledgling young guild to glory, to free the players of SAO from an unforgiving death game. (possible OC / KiritoXMulti / might change to M at a later date)
1. The Devil's Blade

**(A/n the first chapter is a little slow as there is no dialogue, please try to at least read the first 2 or 3 chapters before making judgement as i will be the first to admit that this chapter is not my best work. thanks!)**

**(A/n: (6/17/13) Sup everybody I'm planning to rewrite the first few chapters of my story the same general thing will happen by I'm going to try to make it more exciting than the original was)**

Kirito froze staring at the figure in front of him. The figure was similar to that of a GM with one difference; his face was nothing but darkness, as if they were staring at his very soul. In a way they were, Kirito knew that hiding behind that blackness was a man so depraved he was willing to take 10,000 people hostage just to play god. This was a man who he had once respected greatly, who had created the giant floating castle of Aincraid, this man, whose name, was Kayaba Akihiko.

Taking a step back in horror Kirito looked around, the rest of the crowd was reeling from what they had just heard. But it all made sense, every last detail. Kayaba had always talked about SAO like it was a real world; in every interview he had ever agreed to it was always Aincraid. It was never the virtual world or even SAO just always…Aincraid.

With a chill running up his spine Kirito realized it was. It was a real world in its own way just as the people saw the world through their senses they were seeing this world, this world that can kill, that can snuff out life. Yes this world was real but … it wasn't alive, this world was dead, stagnant. There was no life, no creation, just death. Instead it leeched off the life of their world; it had stolen 10,000 lives and only once conquered would it give any of them back.

Taking another step back Kirito swiftly turned and ran to the nearest exit, leaving the plaza behind, he swiftly opened his inventory. Kirito expected most people would wait for at least a couple days hoping for rescue before venturing out of town, so as result now was the best time to start training.

Some might say he accepted the death game far too easily and that he gave up on leaving so soon but that wasn't true. All throughout his life Kirito had always been of the opinion that it was better to prepare for the worst no matter how unlikely it was than to be caught off guard. So he would assume it was real and if in a couple of days they were let out he would laugh it off and feel no shame in trying, but, if he was right, if he really was trapped in a death game then he would survive. He would conquer this world, this cruel and unforgiving world.

Running swiftly to the weapons shop he quickly bought a spare sword and some potions before running to the edge of town. Swiftly charging the boars in the area he began to grind, boar after boar fell before the swordsman.

An hour later he paused opening his inventory, looking at his XP bar he saw that he was only 6% away from level 2. He was about to go back to grinding when he remember something. A special dungeon on the first floor, what made it so special was two things. It could only be entered if you were level one and only one person could enter at a time.

In the beta no one had been able to finish the dudgeon but if it was that hard then… it had to be worth it. He starting running dodging boars to avoid leveling up he ran into town, he then upgraded his second sword, the one with full durability, with the drops he had gotten off the boars. He didn't bother to repair his first sword as the fee for repairing it was much greater than what it was worth. Keeping his unenhanced sword out Kirito set off towards the dudgeon.

It took him around 20 minutes to arrive, normally it would have taken 10 but dodging around the boars had proven to be a tiresome, if mundane task. He looked at the entrance to the dudgeon taking a deep (and unnecessary, he reminded himself) breath entered the dudgeon. The second he was across the threshold the stone door slammed closed behind him. Since there were barely any teleport crystals till the fifth floor, he was, in a word, trapped. He checked his first blade's durability which was only 34/100

He would have to bring out his enhanced sword soon, looking up he charged into the dark tunnel ahead. The first part of the dudgeon was a maze filled with traps that thanks to his agile (if basic) character build he managed to successfully avoid. He even managed to find a rare healing crystal in a chest as well as some col and other items. Now came the hard part he thought, the mobs, slipping quickly through the narrow corridor he eventually arrived in a small room with three statues.

From his knowledge in the beta he knew they were actually level one mobs with high defense and good attack but bad agility. Wasting no time he slashed at the first statue with a basic sword skill stab the attack hit the statue square in the head and as the statues came to life and prepared to attack he saw with satisfaction that he had managed to reduce the first statues health to just under half of its total. Dashing back to dodge their initial attack he saw their stone blades get stuck in the ground. Kirito, taking advantage of their inability to attack launched a horizontal sword skill slicing all three in their outstretched arms. His attack left the weakest statue with barely a tenth of its health while the others hovered around at the 60% margin.

In the short recovery of the sword skill the statues recover attacking again with a heavy slash Kirito manage to jump back receiving a slight cut on the knee that reduced his health to 80%. Retaliating quickly he slashed out twice with his blade not bothering to use a sword skill on his weakened opponent.

In a flash of polygons the weakest statue shattered and he turned his attention to the remaining two statues. He then charged forward dodging their attacks by dashing to the side swiftly. He used the stab skill again and was rewarded with another flash of polygons he then chained the slash skill with a simple horizontal attack shaving a large amount of health of the final statue. Trapped in the cool down he only just managed to block the statues attack with his sword the sheer force nearly knocking him over. Without its sword stuck in the ground the statue struck again and Kirito parried easily, or he would have if his sword hadn't shattered into polygons. "Shit" Kirito stated matter-of-factly before dodging the blade of the statue by jumping into its guard. He was now face to face with his enemy and on an idiotic impulse Kirito dealt a barehanded strike to the statues stomach which surprisingly caused it to shatter into polygons.

Level UP! : Challenge completed a second popup came up after the first. Challenge Name: stone fist description: defeat an enemy with twice or more your defense using your fist. Reward: 230, EXP 200 col and a second handed weapon Cats claw.

This was another function of Sword Art Online; there were various challenges requiring characters to do difficult and often time consuming things in exchange for a reward which generally included some XP, col, and occasionally an item.

Kirito quick opened his inventory and examined the new weapon he had received. Equipping his upgraded sword he then selected the claw and, in a flash of polygons, a claw appeared on his left hand revealing 3 iron blades attached to a gauntlet on his hand. Smirking, he quickly distributed his stat points and then smirked. Thanks to the challenge bonus and the Mobs he was only 40 % away from the third level.

He continued through the labyrinth heading deeper and deeper into its depths. He leveled up once more before reaching the end of the dudgeon, the door to the mini boss was right ahead of him. Looking at his health bar he saw it was only just above 50%. Sighing he sat down waiting for it to regenerate on its own instead of wasting one of his precious healing potions.

He looked down at himself or more specifically his equipment. The claw had proven to be useful in combos but he would still have preferred a second sword as its reach and defensive capabilities far exceeded the thin, but sharp, claws. On the bright side they helped reduce the damage to his sword by allowing him to expend their durability instead of that of his sword.

Checking over his equipment's states, he frowned slightly. His sword was at 60/120 durability while the claws were at 345/500. Sadly the weapon he preferred had such a fragile disposition compared to the claw. He sighed and stood up opening the boss room door. It led to a moderately sized but dark room lit only by a few candles and torches giving it an eerie atmosphere.

"Here we go" Kirito stated walking carefully forward into the room. Just as he reached the center there was a blood curdling roar as a cloaked figure charged from the darkness in front of him. It proceeded to swing a large deadly looking scythe directly at him. Dashing backwards Kirito swiftly avoided the attack before jumping forward and slashing at the monsters face with a horizontal. The Boss, with surprising agility, dodged the attack swiftly jumping back several feet. Kirito then took a second to examine the boss, the name read Death's Lieutenant. It was level 7… "Ooh crap" Kirito stated glancing back the door which had closed behind him "this is gonna take a while"

-30 minutes later-

"Damn it" Kirito panted in the last 30 minutes he had gone through one of the hardest fights (since he was level 3) in his MMO career not that that mattered now, he had won, barely, dropping to one knee unsteadily he looked at his remaining health; 21/500 just one more hit and he would have died.

Breathing heavily Kirito stood up before looking at the items that were dropped by the boss 20,000 col, 6000xp (he was now level 7 now), the coat of the specter, and the … devil's blade. Quickly opening his inventory he began examining his new items starting with the coat. Increases defense by 40% and increases the following skills by 20%: one-handed swords / two-handed swords/ hiding/ tracking/ coolness/seduction **(A/N if only)**. Adds special skill assassination penetrates all armor on all enemies if you attack before detected negating all defense.

"Epic" Kirito said "this will be good enough for ,well the entire game, the skill ups are great although I'm not sure about the last two, but I'll take it." He said equipping it, the nightmare black coat fit his style preferences perfectly and was the perfect length.

Moving on to the new sword he frowned it had the same stats as his current blade but there should be something special about it, it is a boss drop after all. Skimming through the summery his eyes focused on one sentence -_Feeds off the souls of the damned, this blade grows stronger for every monster or player you kill with it , the stronger the monster the more it grows , its potential is nearly limitless. –_Sword stats level one XP: 0%

Kirito froze rereading that sentence over and over. "Hmhmmh ahhahah" Kirito let out a laugh that was borderline psychopathic, the sounds of his laughter rebounded off the walls of the chamber filling the entire labyrinth with dark laughter. "*cough* err, um, I mean sweet" Kirito remedied once he realized he sounded like a cliché villain that would probably die in the end. Equipping the sword he exited the dungeon.

**(A/N: was the rewrite better? Worse? If you think the original was better tell me, though I doubt it was, and I'll put it back.)**


	2. The Devil's Dance

**(A/N: Rewritten as of 6/17/13 same general story better writing (I hope)) **

As the monster shattered into bright glowing crystals the figure who had slain the beast sheathed his sword, looking intently at a status bar that had just popped up. Swords level up, level 7 reached. Kirito smiled "kickass" he said simply glancing at his status bar his health was hovering at a comfortable 96% his total level was 18 an impressive feat for the first floor.

If everything went well he would do something completely unheard of in all of MMO history (not that anyone really keeps track). His goal lofty though it may be, was to solo the first floor boss. Normally this would be impossible but due to his SSR rank gear and over leveled character he imagined that it would be possible. If all else failed him he had a teleport crystal stashed in his pocket ready for use at a moment notice.

Most people would call this a stupid and foolhardy thing to do, but Kirito was desperate to assist in clearing the game. If he appeared in public with his over leveled character and weapon he would be hunted for it and called a Beater or even a hacker. Though he could see why they would think that, his sword's current attack power was equivalent to something on the 7th floor at this point.

So here he was, standing in front of the great gate behind which the boss of floor one lay waiting. Glancing back at his health he saw it had regenerated to 100% and, with a determined look on his face, Kirito strode forward pushing open the mighty gate and holding his blade in front of him. He walked into the well-lit church-like Room; Kirito had walked around ten feet from the door when it happened, along the sides of the church columns of light burst up as monsters began spawning. A massive and final column burst into existence at the far end of the room revealing the boss himself.

Kirito closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. The boss's guards charged Kirito just stood there for a moment. Just before they were within range Kirito's eyes snapped open and he dashed forward in a storm of pixelated dust swinging his blade in a horizontal fashion his blade glowed a demonic black as he cleaved the monsters in ones hit directly by the deadly blade exploding into polygons immediately while the rest lost most of their health and were blasted backwards violently.

Thanks to a rare extra skill known as hurricane of steel that gave the player a chance to avoid the cool down time of a swords skill Kirito continued forward and finished the remaining guards off in a flurry of swings not wasting a sword skill on the weakened enemies. He then charged the boss who moved his axe down in a vertical motion attempting to slice Kirito in half.

*flashback*

The reapers scythe was moving down in a vertical swing the blade not but a blur, Kirito only had a few hit points left. Moving in a flurry of movements Kirito dashed to the side barely dodging the blade.

*flashback end*

Kirito sidestepped the axe with ease, it's slow and bulky movements were easily avoided he then jumped and landed on the wooden shaft of the axe which was now stuck in the ground. Kirito ran up it quickly right at the boss. Jumping and slashing at the boss's exposed face Kirito let out flurry of strikes avoiding using sword skills since he could not afford to freeze up.

He landed 8 good hits before using the monster noses as a kickstand and jumping over it with a flip. On his way down he held his sword out so it was parallel to the ground slicing through the monster's back as he went down. Landing he then dashed across the open ground before pivoting and observing the boss its first health bar was around halfway depleted only 3 more to go after this but if he got hit by the axe he would still take a considerable amount of damage even if his max health was 4,666 he did not want to take the risk

The monster roared in rage, repeating its charge, after 2 similar charges the boss appeared to realize it was just wasting its health. It only had 2 and a half health bars left and it was forced to change strategies. Kirito noticed the change in its stance and dashed forward not wanting to be caught unawares. Gasping he then slid to floor as the monster axe swung horizontally over him. Using his momentum he jumping up risking a powerful sword skill to damage the off balance boss.

"Hellfire surge" Kirito yelled as his sword was wrapped in an ominous red and black light flames running up the sides of his blade. He brought his blade down in a blur slashing deeply into the chest of the Kobold lord. The boss took an unsteady stepped back as its health plummeted and its health bars turned black indicating a rare status effect unique to Kirito's blade something he had unlocked when it reached level 5, it was known as the cursed statue effect, Meaning all the stats of the effected opponent dropped by 10% excluding max hp.

Kirito stood there frozen by the sword skill as the boss recovered although it only had 1 and ¾ of a health bar left the fight was not over. Kirito was surprised when the boss dropped his axe and drew a massive sword. The boss was not supposed to change weapons till it had only 1 health bar left. The sword skill cool down wore off just as the boss swung the blade. This time Kirito just barely dodged the swing dashing to the side.

Shit he just got faster Kirito thought angrily before dashing forwards and dealing a number of non-skill hits on the boss's legs before running up its back while dragging his sword behind him over the boss's back. He then kicked off of its skull and landed only to be immediately bashed aside by the boss's blade.

He went flying across the long room and only just landed on his feet. He then glanced at his health which was just above 50%. What!? It was more than 90% just a second ago. Damn his attack power is crazy! He looked up at the boss who was one his last health bar with only around 80% of it to go.

"No way in hell am I giving up now!" Kirito yelled angrily charging again at the boss "Nightmare raid" Kirito yelled activated another one of his custom sword skills. Kirito's speed picked up even more as he sped towards the boss. The boss then swung its blade down at Kirito who made no move to avoid as he accelerated towards it. At the last second right before the blade hit him Kirito vanished only to reappear in front of the boss's face attacking viciously. His blade was covered in what looked like red and black electricity that crackled maliciously.

As the boss made to slap Kirito aside with its blade he again vanished reappearing behind the boss this time slashing violently and then vanishing again. At a frightening speed Kirito then began reappearing, slashing and vanishing until the boss only had 10 percent health left before reappearing for good this time 10 feet in front of the boss frozen from the skill.

The boss roared in rage before charging towards the immobile player swinging down at a frightening speed its blade tore through the air directly at Kirito. Kirito just dodged to the side before dashing towards the unbalanced boss his blade glowing an intense combination of white and black. His blade blurred becoming only a flash of light as he stuck the boss twice as his passed by it. Stopping just behind it he stood up tall and spoke "Heretic's Cross" the two slashes left an afterimage on the boss forming a black and white cross. The boss let out a dying scream before shattering into polygons, and so it was that 1 month after the beginning of Kayaba's death game the first boss was slain by the black swordsman Kirito.

Kirito breathed out deeply as several popups appeared in front of him. Congratulations, he read, last hit bonus Black Dragon hide armor. Level up 17-21, sword level up 7-9 , other drops 30,000 col, 2 teleport crystals , 3 medium healing crystals, 20 obsidian throwing daggers , assassin's dagger(off hand weapon). Kirito smirks equipping the dagger into his empty off hand weapon slot and storing the daggers in his belt he then equipped the dragon hide armor distributing his skill points with one hand. Looking up he strode forward towards the second floor 'an amazing accomplishment, but I will not stop here' he thought to himself.

-Back at the entrance to the boss room-

3 figures came out of the shadows just beyond the open door

"What the hell!" one of the figures called out in a feminine voice

"Yeah what in god's name was that?" A gruffer voice agreed in a stunned tone

"That guy is on another level entirely both literally and figuratively" the feminine voice said again in awe "hmm? Argo what's wrong," the feminine voice called out to the last member of the trio "why are you being so quiet?"

The figure known as Argo responded in an excited singsong voice "That skill! That color scheme! That ridiculously forever alone approach! This could only be…" the girl paused grinning

"Who?" the other two called out desperately

"Why Asuna, Klein, this person could be none other than the one, the only," the girl paused for dramatic effect "Ki-bou." She finished grinning compulsively.


	3. The Devil's Mercy

**(A/n rewrite as of 7/28/13)**

Kirito exited the dudgeon and looked around; breathing in the fresh air of the heavily forested second floor he smirked and then strode off purposefully. He was met with a paltry resistance of various aggressive type monsters known as kobold remnants they were split into several classes like soldiers, rangers, and thieves amongst other things. The monsters were only level 14 and were easily massacred by his demon sword. After 2 hours of lazy walking (and murdering monsters) he saw the gates in the distance, the second floor home city.

He approached the gate and saw that it was under siege by Kobolds. Sensing a quest Kirito charged forward to assist the city guards. He sliced through the weak monsters attacking them with relative ease destroying them all in a matter of minutes. As the last one shattered under his assault he heard a ragged cheer erupt out of the guards. One, who looked like an officer of some type, approached Kirito and began speak "Thank you stranger that was amazing fighting we…" The guard was cut off by a rage filled roar from behind Kirito.

Spinning on his heel and drawing his blade he found himself faced with a force 50 kobolds but that was not what made him nervous. What made him nervous was the one leading them. It was a massive monster almost as tall as the last floors boss and had a lot more guards; its caption read Kalfang the kobold prince.

From a glance Kirito could tell that this was a miniboss and should probably be easier than the first floor's boss, but despite this he didn't know its combat pattern. He had fought the floor one boss armed with his beta knowledge and such this boss was a bit of a wild card. He wasn't too worried though as he had more than high enough stats to defeat it as long as he wasn't reckless.

"Stranger," the guard called from next to him "please help us protect our city from this menace, we will reward you for your help." the man pleaded "got it" Kirito replied accepting the quest with his eyes still on the enemy. Breathing deeply Kirito dashed forward unleashing a sword skill on the kobold forces; he then proceeded to decimate the kobold's front lines using his AOE attack skills. The city guards charged behind him protecting his flanks from the kobold forces. Blocking a kobold's strike with his sword he stabbed its unprotected stomach with a sword skill using his off-hand dagger.

He must have hit a weak point because it shattered instantly in a flash of polygons. He then moved his sword forward in a vertical slash killing the kobold behind the one he had just killed. Dashing forward he slashed horizontally with a powerful swords skill that blasted back the front line of the kobold force and killed a few. The city guards advanced around him protecting him from the kobolds while the sword skill cooled down.

As soon as it finished he returned to the front of the fight, slashing down kobolds left and right. The kobold prince whom had been hovering near the back roared in rage as the last of his kobold guards fell. He then started to move forwards causing most of the guards to take a few steps back. And one called out in a panicky "we can't win! Oh god!" the line of guards looked close to breaking so Kirito called out "leave this to me" before surging forward and preparing a massive sword skill his blade once again glowing in black and red fire "HELLFIRE SURGE" he yelled while jumping into the air. The sword skill collided directly with the miniboss's chest causing it to stumble backwards from the powerful hit its health bar dropping.

The monster only had two health bars and with that hit the first one depleted to around 50%. Jumping backwards Kirito prepared to dodge the boss's counter attack as soon as his cool down time was up. The boss drew a violent looking chain mace and started twirling it ominously. Shit I Can't block that Kirito thought, dodging only I guess.

His cool down ended and he dashed forward attempting to avoid the miniboss's attack by ducking under the giant weapon. He succeeded, but only barely, as he had felt something brush past his head and his HP dropped a few points. As the weapon slammed into the ground behind him, he continued forward, jumping he then kicked off of the monster's leg and flew towards its unprotected face sword skill charging.

An hour and a half earlier outside the first boss room-

"Over here!" Argo called loudly to the approaching group waving her hand

"Argo you said you found a strong player for our guild right? Well once we make it to the 4th floor anyways" one of the people in the approaching party called. The person who had called was an aqua blue haired girl with a repeater crossbow strung across her back she wore a simple set of leather armor and had a magnifying glass of some type hanging from her hip as well as a small short sword for close quarters combat "where is he?" she continued

Argo smiled before replying "we haven't exactly talked to him yet but…"

"Then why did you call us out here? I don't care how good he is why do we have to run through several miles of dudgeon to talk to one person who might join our guild! Why the hell didn't you talk to..." the aqua haired girl exploded

"Follow me and I'll show you why" Argo said confidently whirling around and walking around the corner towards the boss door.

"Where are we going?" one of the other people in the new party asked, she was short in comparison to the others, her hair was done in a twin pony tail with a sword on her back and a small shield strapped to her arm. As soon as she walked around the corner she stopped in shock.

"What's up Silica?" The aqua haired girl walked around the corner "is there something… around the corner!? She said breaking mid-sentence in shock. "That's…"

"That's right Sinon the boss door" Argo said in a superior tone.

"We should go back and gather a bigger party for this" Sinon said still in shock.

"No need" Argo replied walking through the boss room door.

"Argo wait don't you'll trigger the… boss?" Sinon said voice faltering at the end when Argo walked unopposed through the room. "What!? But how?" Sinon cried out in amazement.

"That player who mightjoin our guild," Argo stated in a confident tone and pausing for affect "just soloed the boss an hour ago; if you don't believe me then you can check with Klein or even Asuna, they'll back me up."

The arriving party stared expectantly at the two whom had been standing a bit off to the side for the last few minutes. And then to their amazement the two looked at them before Asuna replied "it's true, it was unlike anything I've ever seen MMO wise (a/n in this story Asuna was a beta tester as well as the other members of Kirito's harem and the other members of his soon to be guild.)his reaction times were off the charts."

The group exploded into chaos "we have to recruit him!" "Shit lets go can't let someone else recruit him!"

"He soloed a boss!?" these and other various comments shot out rapidly from the new group.

"QUIET!" a deep loud voice called out over the shouts which quickly ceased "Argo how long ago did he leave"

"He left around 5 minutes before I messaged you Agil." Argo replied

"Then let's go" the large man known as Agil shouted receiving a general consensus from the 12 other players in the group including Argo, Asuna, and Klein

The group set off through into the caves behind the boss room.

-Present-

The sword skill hit the boss's face directly demolishing the rest of the hit points in its first bar of health and leaving the second at 95%. As soon as he landed he was frozen and was forced to watch as the monster prepared to maul him at the last second Kirito regained control dashing forward he blocked the horizontal swing of the chain mace by sticking his sword up in the middle of the chain.

The mace swung around and the unruly weapon turned on its owner slamming into the monster's face at the end of its deadly arc. The monster's health was further reduced to around 75%. Kirito couldn't resisted as he charge forward he taunted "Why are you hitting yourself?" before landing a few more sword skills on the unbalanced boss causing it to topple over the mace flying through the air and landing on its stomach. With only 20% of health left in the monster health bar Kirito decided to go for a theatrical execution.

Running up a nearby tree Kirito let go off his blade causing the unbalanced weapon to fall blade down. As he reach a thick branch he quickly reversed his body jumping downwards towards the ground with all his might, adjusting himself in midair to be facing feet down he timed himself correctly as he kicked out and his foot hit the blade a second before it landed in the monster's face. The blade pierced through the monsters head easily with Kirito's added weight and momentum forcing it down to the hilt.

The damage a regular hit dealt was directly related to the amount of force behind the blade which caused a multiplier effect with the sword's regular damage. With the force of him dropping more than twenty feet with added velocity added from him kicking off added to the fact it was a headshot, the strike dealt massive damage.

The monster shattered and Kirito jumped down picking up his blade. That was kick ass Kirito thought too bad no one saw that, well actually that would be bad with all the shouts of "Beater! Beater! XP eater!" He still didn't know how that retarded chant had started up but it was a constant annoyance.

"Holy shit!" a voice called out from behind him follow by several others' that appeared to be in agreement. Kirito internally sighed, speak of the devil and he shall come running.

-10 Minutes earlier-

"The footprints lead in this direction." Argo said using her tracking skill to follow the faded footprints

"So Argo you said you know this person?" Sinon asked the excitable girl

"If he's who I think he is, and I'm pretty sure, then yes he was one of 2 friend friends on my friends list in the beta." The girl replied excitedly.

"Friend friends on your friends list?" Klein said confused.

"Yeah like people who aren't just contacts or people trying to get free information." She replied "the other being Asuna here but that was only in the last week and she never met kii-bou" Argo finished

"Is that his real name" Sinon asked skeptically

"No his full name is Kirito but kii-bou is much more fitting" Argo replied sagely

"Why?" Sinon asked

Well…"Argo started "it just is okay" she said haughtily.

"….." the rest of the group remained silent.

Argo was about to defend herself when the group heard combat in the distance. Running off the path and up a hill Argo and co _(_A/N hey it rhymes =)_)_ arrived just in time to see a black clad swordsman charge into a group of kobolds attacking some guards at a giant gate. He slashed through the ranks of the kobolds like they weren't even there leaving the rest of Argo's group to watch in awe. The player appeared to be talking to the guard captain when something caught Argo's eye a giant figure that looked like a miniboss and a huge number of kobolds. The rest group barring Argo Asuna and Klein tensed to run in to help.

"Wait" Argo called out "just watch" and true to her words the black clad player dashed forward slaughtering most of the kobold's front line with a devastating sword skill. He then, while being supported slightly by the city guards, tore through the unorganized kobolds. Someone in Argo's group got up and started walking towards the battle "hey what are you doing?" Argo called out

"Getting a better seat" the awed player responded and continued walking, the rest of the group, including Argo followed suit.

Once they stopped moving they saw the black swordsman dash forward sword burning black and red fire. In a powerful voice he yelled "HELLFIRE SURGE" while jumping at the boss. To the amazement of his observers the sword skill dealt amazing damage to the boss shaving of more than a forth of his total health. The swordsman then adopted a ready stance preparing to counter attack swiftly avoiding the boss's attack then using its own knee as a kick stand to deal devastating damage to the boss. Before jumping back and freezing with due to cool down time.

The players in Argo's gasped as the monsters weapon (a brutal chain mace) swung horizontally towards the player. And to the amazement of the group the player dashed forward redirecting the giant ball of iron by blocking the chains movement and causing the ball of Death (A/N YAY!) to come hurdling back at the miniboss damaging its health, but the black clad swordsman wasn't done yet with a shout of "why are you hitting yourself?", to the amusement of the spectators. He then struck the boss causing it to fall over in a daze. Then to the confusion of the players he started to run up a tree

Argo whisper in a singsong voice "Theatrical execution hmm nice touch" the rest of the group shot her confused looked before returning their attention to the battle. They watched in awe as the player dropped his sword and then jumped towards the ground landing on the pommel of his blade forcing it through the skull of the boss as he landed the swordsman's coat and hair billowed epically in the wind. He then jump off and grabbed the blade swiftly.

"Holy shit" Sinon said airily and was soon follow by several other comments relating to the ridiculously overkill skillzz (with a zz) of the black swordsman. Said player then tensed at the sound of the voices behind him.

Argo thought she might have just barely heard the word "shit" muttered by the player under his breath. She then got a good look at his face and then took a slight risk shouting out in a singsong voice at the top of her lungs. "Kiii-bbooouuu!"


	4. The Devil's Kin

**(A/n I got a review saying that Kirito was overpowered and I completely agree at this point he is. But if your compare the number of players at the first boss to the last you'll see that compared to the twenty something of the first boss there was several hundred players to fight the 75****th**** boss. This means the ratio of player power to enemy power was the highest on the first floor. You'll also notice that when he leveled up his sword although a lower level compared to his player level only went up twice compared to his player level going up thrice. The sword requires considerably more xp to level up than Kirito. His recently acquired SSR equipment will give him a distinct advantage on the lower level's when combined with his beta knowledge he was able reach the best grinding spot first and so got the most money and such for gear. So for a while he will be overpowered but eventually the game will catch up to him and he knows that. As for his easy defeat of the boss type enemy on floor two it was a mini boss with half the health of Ilfang and considerably less defense compared to the boss making it easy for Kirito to demolish. Hope that sets some of your worries aside I do not intent for Kirito to be able to single handedly clear the game. And now on to chapter four enjoy =).**

Directly after Argo's call 3 things happened consecutively, Kirito nearly dropped his sword as an expression crossed his face, Argo's group nearly broke out laughing from his expression which was akin to a trapped animal and Kirito was tackled by the excitable Argo whom had judged by his reaction that he was indeed her friend (and favorite teasing victim) Kirito. Kirito managed to stay upright and then says in a strained voice "that nickname" he shivered "that's you isn't it Argo."

Said girl giggled slightly and said teasingly "Amazing ki-bou, to be able to distinguish someone whose face you've never see before as me with just a simple hug, do you have anything you want to say ki-bou?" she pressed herself on him slightly just barely not triggering the game's anti-harassment alert.

Face turning red Kirito said with as much dignity as he could muster "A-Argo would you quit molesting me?"

"It's not molesting if you like it" the girl replied immediately

"Who said I…" Kirito began to reply

"The expression on your face says it all" Argo interjected.

"Argo" an annoyed girl's voice interjected "We are here to recruit him not seduce him."

"Can't we do both Sinon? Pleeaaassee" Argo replied in a begging tone.

"Argo" Sinon replied darkly.

"Fine" Argo replied in a tone that closely resembled a little girl told by her mother to go to sleep.

But despite what she said Sinon could not quite overcome the strange fluttering in her heart starring at the effeminate swordsman. She found herself instantly taken by his looks, the fluttering of his hair in the wind, combined with those beautiful golden eyes of his were overwhelming it was taking every bit of her will to keep up her tough girl routine. Glancing around, she quickly saw that the others were clearly less capable when it came to hiding their emotions. She sighed but was internally amused it was good the others had something to distract them from the death game even if it was only a badass pretty boy swordsman.

"Hey" Kirito said suddenly "Do any of you think I look like a badass pretty boy swordsman?" Sinon nearly choked

"Wha-!?" Sinon managed.

"Sorry that was a weird question but the last group that caught me grinding was a bunch of girls." Kirito replied apologetically "I just wanted to know if it was true because I swear they've been stalking me." The boy explained "like shadows at every corner and behind every door kind of stalking, I only managed to give them the slip a little bit ago like 2-3 days in which I was hiding in the woods." He confided

At this Argo cracked up "Most people are worried you about dying and you're more scared of a horde of girls that just like you ki-bou" then with a mischievous smile she continued "though you can't really blame the girls ki-bou." Approaching Kirito with a decidedly seductive expression on her face "you can't blame them at all" repeated licking her lips.

At this point Kirito replied "are you sure you're Argo? You may have teased me to hell and back but this seem like actual seduction." Despite the steadiness of his voice as he said this his face was quite red.

In response to this question Argo sent a friend request to Kirito confirming her name. Kirito sighed dejectedly and clicked accept. He was then spammed with requests from all the other girls in the group and although with considerably less zest the guys who were glaring jealously at the attention the black swordsman was getting.

"The reason I never tried was because I didn't know what was behind the face of your pretty little avatar." Argo replied keeping on her seductive voice. "But I need not have worried"

Kirito now decidedly uncomfortable asked "Are you high?" the rest of the group burst out laughing at this. After around 20 seconds Sinon who had recovered from her fit of giggles cleared her throat silencing the rest of the group.

"We'll never get anything done at this rate." she said sternly "anyway" turning to Kirito she said "we gathering people to make a guild once we get to the fourth floor." Seeing the fleeting look of doubt on the swordsman's face she continued "everyone in this group is a beta and a veteran mmo player, if you're worried about us slowing you down, don't." she finished

Kirito looked deep in thought on one hand there was a limit to what he could do on his own but on the other he was not quite sure he wanted to saddle the other's with someone who would without a doubt be called a hacker when news of his sword and other gear got around. As if sensing were his doubts were coming from Argo spoke out

"Don't worry about dragging our names through the dirt ki-bou, we're all 'filthy beaters' here." The normally teasing girl said in a reassuring tone.

"… okay but on one condition" Kirito said at this most of the gathered players thought 'he wants to be the leader right.' Kirito then continued "we all take credit for beating floor one's boss" he finished

"Eeehhh!"

"Well you see I don't really like attention that much" Kirito explained sheepishly "don't really want to be assassinated for my gear either though."

"Okay but one thing first" Klein spoke out "how do we know you're not connected to Kayaba?" at Kirito's confused look Klein continued "how do we know you really exist you could be Kayaba playing an avatar for all we know" Kirito nodded realizing the truth in this statement though confused on how to replied

"He's not" a voice from the group said.

"What do you mean Yukki?" Asuna spoke sounding surprised **(A/N yup Yukki's in game, she's also healthy and about as happy as you can get in a death game, in this she 14 the same age as Kirito.)**

"He is a real person" the girl continued "I met him IRL once"

For the first time Kirito looked closely at the girl before his eyes widened in recognition pointing a figure he said "world championship's during the finals." Kirito said surprised.

"What?" Asuna said looking even more confused

"Asuna-nee, you know how I practice kendo? Well this person is the one who beat me in the second to last rung of the bracket and later won the world champs." Yukki explained.

At this the group eyes widened looking at the youth. Yukki then continued "but the question is why did you remember me you fought won the champion ships I lost before the final round?"

Kirito smiled and said "If you'd been on the other side of the bracket I think it would have been you in the final's" Kirito said simply "our fight was more of a challenge than the one against the 'master'" he said the word master mockingly "that was in the final round."

"Really?" Yukki asked surprised

"Yup"

"So you know each other's real names?" Argo said smiling at the thought of selling their personal information. Of course she wasn't cruel so it would go for around 100,000 col each.

"No, since we were underage during the championship our names were kept out of the paper and reports as well as never officially being released" Kirito said calmly glad in a way that Argo couldn't find out his Identity.

"Aww" Argo said disappointedly "ahh well there are more than one way to make a pig squeal."

"Since when am I pig?" Kirito asked irritably

"Well with how nice you're being it obvious you're just trying to cultivate your own harem ki-bou you don't hide it that well." Argo said sagely much to Kirito's horror.

"What!?" Kirito said in shock. "No I'm not trying to do that!" Kirito said once he recovered part of his sanity.

"Right~ of course I believe you ki-bou" Argo said smugly.

"Would you two stop acting like married couple!" an annoyed Klein shouted out he was soon followed by shouts of his group of friends (the members of Fuurinkazan in canon). Surprisingly Argo blushed slightly at this before getting a slightly dreamy look.

"What are you thinking about" Kirito said nervously

Argo blinked before recovering with a quick comeback "I was just thinking of various ways to ruin Klein's life nothing much."

Klein gulped, Asuna giggled, and Sinon smirked knowingly while Kirito just look pitifully at Klein and said in a sad voice "rest in peace Klein it was nice knowing you."

"Don't act like I'm dead!" Klein complained at this the rest of the group just looked at him sadly and Kirito continued

"You should stop clinging on to life your time is past, rest poor soul" his voice similar to a preacher at a funeral.

"I'm not dead!" Klein complained again

Kirito then turned and walked over to the captain of the guard and collected his quest reward.

"Thank you stranger with the kobolds vanquished we can open the front gate." The guard said "for you services I like to give you something for helping me protect my home" he continued "there is an old mansion on the fourth floor just to the east of the main city, this key will let you opened the front gate." The guard held his hand out and a key appeared in Kirito's inventory "consider the mansion yours it's a bit run down but nothing a bit of elbow grease or col wont clear up." The man finished. Just then a popup appeared on Kirito's screen. Quest complete city in peril (solo) rewards: 6000xp 3000col and key to the unique house fortified mansion as well as ownership.

"What'd you get" Argo asked

"some col and a house on the fourth floor once I get there" Kirito replied "it says it's a mansion so it's probably pretty big" Kirito mused **(a/n in this game there is a significant bonus if you finish the unique quests solo due to the added challenge but since Kirito's joining a group he will no longer benefit from this fact after this.)**

"Why do you get all the cool badass gear and stuff?" Klein whined slightly

"Because he's a badass pretty boy swordsman you're just dumb muscle" Argo said dismissively.

Klein and the rest of the males in the group barring Kirito started crying. "Why is the world so unfair!" one of his friends called out in despair.


	5. The Devil's Army

**(A/N: a little note about my update rate I only work on Friday and the weekends for various reasons but I will try to put out at least 2 chapters over the course of a weekend as you've noticed my chapters will be 1500-2500 words usually but I'll publish the stories as soon as I finish them in fact I'm starting this around 30 minutes after I published my last chapter anyways enjoy :hint sama is Japanese and is used when speaking to someone of greater importance than you or as a sign of respect (o_o) /).**

As Kirito and his new friends approached the city game it was opened up by the guards the npc's cheered when Kirito walked through the gate and into the town. Kirito smiled slightly somehow reassured by the fact that this was a programmed event and not really happening.

"You seem pretty pleased with yourself hero-sama" Argo said teasingly poking Kirito's cheek "and I thought you were anti-social.

"Quiet jester I don't need your opinion" Kirito said in a false superior tone causing the rest of the group to snicker.

"Jester?" Argo said slightly indignant

"Hmm" Klein thought out loud "maybe we should make that her official rank once we make a guild it fits her perfectly."

"Asuna, Sinon they're picking on me" Argo complained attempting to gain support

"And I will never allow fellow maiden to be slandered in anyway, so naturally I completely agree it does suit her." Sinon's reply caused Argo to pout cutely causing the rest of the group to start laughing

Then suddenly Argo smirked seeing a way to turn this to her advantage she pressed into Kirito's back and then in a sultry manor said just loudly enough for everyone to hear "okay hero-sama I'll come to your room tonight and entertain you, as is my job, don't worry I have a special show ready" she licked her lips

"Aargghh" Kirito sputtered face turning red "wha—what are you saying Argo!?"

"I'm the jester after all I have to make sure that hero-sama is not bored and although hero-sama is strong he is still 14 so I have no choice for hero-sama's sake" Argo continued in an innocent voice

"Q-quit it A–Argo" Kirito stuttered as she continued to rub herself across his back

Just then Sinon came up and grabbing Argo by the back of her armor pulled her off Kirito she then said with a hint of vehemence "quit acting like a love sick puppy!" despite saying this there was something that grated her seeing Argo pressed against Kirito …is this… jealousy? Me cold tough heartless Sinon is… jealous? Damn his good looks.

"t-thanks" Kirito managed still red face.

"Whatever hero-sama" Sinon replied managing to keep her voice neutral.

Kirito sighed "could you guys quit it with the hero-sama thing? It's getting annoying"

"Got it badass pretty boy swordsman." Klein complied

"That's even worse!" Kirito complained

"Hmm" Asuna pondered "how about badass pretty boy swordsman-Sama?"

Kirito just groaned

"Lord help me" he said dismally before blinking and speaking in a serious tone "when we activate the teleport gate a bunch of player's are going to pour into the plaza of the second floor" Kirito paused for a breath "We have to make a choice do we activate it and quickly run off or remain and walk off like total bad-asses" Kirito continued

"I think we should go for number 2" Sinon said "if were seen scampering off it might make us look like were scared of people and we won't be able to get new recruits."

"Not to mention some idiot like cactus head could take the credit and use it for their own personally gains." Kirito agreed "but should we let it be known that were all beta's?" Kirito asked "it could help improve the rest of the beta's rep but also might make people hate us."

"They figure it out quickly enough that we're beta's pretty quickly ki-bou" Argo said for once serious

"We need to accept that they'll figure it out soon and we can't have people turning on us for withholding that little bit of information." Asuna agreed.

"Okay i have an idea" Kirito smirked "here's what we do.."

As they finished talking they reached the center of the plaza Kirito reached his hand out and activated the portal.

-10 minutes earlier-

"Hello everyone" a blue haired man called out cheerfully "my name is Diabel, I like to think of myself as the knight class" this comment was followed by laughter and jeers from the crowd. Smiling the man continued "while we have not yet found the location of the first boss room we still have the data from the beta's who are cooperating with us." Diable said only to be interjected by an angry voice

"Beta's? Cooperating? They just want to make themselves look good" an angry cactus headed man yelled angrily **(A/N an angry man yelling angrily who'd of thought?**) "just because they helped with a bit of second rate data doesn't mean we should forgive them!" the man began to rant "they took all the best grinding spots and left all of us newbies in the dust! They left us to die and you're going to forgive them for giving a half assed report!" his statement was followed by a few cries of agreement from the crowd

"Yeah" one man called out "I saw a group of 12 or so beta's training against level 12 monsters and slaying them easy!" he called outraged "and they haven't given us a bit of map data and they didn't even bother to attend this meeting!" he continued "they'll probably let us test the weakness of the boss and die before coming in and taking the good item's from it! They're not even going to help us clear the game the traitors!" just as he said this there was a system announcement

"Second floor man city portal unlocked" a mechanical voice called out over the land.

Almost instantly the players charged towards the teleporting grounds and teleported to the new city. When they arrived they came face to face with a group of player's standing in the center of the group was a swordsman in black. Hair flickering in the wind with his coat fluttering behind him he looked like a real warrior his presence was so great the players barely even noticed the other members of his group. The player gave them a look before turning around and walking towards the exit of the plaza with slow calculated steps. The remaining players in the party followed in a similar manor with slow steady steps like they had all the time in the world and nothing could touch them.

The newer player's look on in awe while the front liners (or so they had thought) were stunned into silence.

"What's going on!?" Diabel said surprised "why is the second floor open"?

"What do you think? We cleared the boss of course weren't you listening to Kayaba's damn announcement?" the black swordsman replied evenly. Cactus head was about yell an insult when he noticed the massive man standing next the boy he was easily 7 feet tall and built like a bear. Faced with the fierce visage of Agil even Kibaou was intimidated. As a result he remained silent.

Diabel recovering his sensing asked the question on everyone's mind "When did you find the boss door? And why didn't you send for help?"

The youth garbed in black spoke then.

"We found it earlier today" he said calmly before continuing "and as for why we didn't call for help well it was unnecessary." he finished " Now if you are done wasting my time we have to go." Kirito continued bluntly

At this point some members in the crowd began whispering and pointing at the handsome youth, his coat billowing in the wind and his neutral golden eyes gave him the look of a professionally badass and unfortunately for Kirito a certain group of girls he'd met earlier recognized him instantly. They immediately assessed the other members of his party and found the results worrying in the member's behind him there was a collection of 5 girls each cute in their own way. And so the cult of Kirito began to plan how they would rescue the poor deceived golden eyed youth from the evil naysayers that were corrupting him(or that's how they described it anyway). But this is a different story for a different time, one that happens to involve someone's basement and duct tape.

It was at this point that Kibaou recovered his voice he spoke slowly but steadily "How the hell did you guys beat the boss already!?" he picked up momentum "You guys must have monopolized all the good items and grinding spots!" he said angrily "You're nothing more than greedy bastards who only care about yourselves"

To this the youth just laughed and replied "And so the kettle calls the pot black" smirking Kirito continues "You don't give a shit about other players your just using it to turn yourself into a symbol and gain power." Kirito finished

"No I don't" Kibaou shouted back

"Really so you won't pursue a position of power? Good because you'd make a horrible leader." Kirito said calmly at this Kibaou's face turned red

Kibaou then shouted "shut up you damn beater! what do you know?"

"Enough to know that someone nearly dies of high blood pressure when a kid insults him has no control over his anger" Kirito deadpanned. And true to Kirito's word Kibaou's face was indeed turning a rather brutal shade of reddish-purple, at this comment several people snorted watching the boy mind rape the angry cactus head. Kirito snorted then turned back walking towards the exit of the plaza

"Where do you think you're going you brat come back here!" Kibaou called out angrily

"Sorry I've wasted enough brain cells today talking to you than I care to mention already ta-ta." Kirito said arrogantly as he and his group exit the plaza leaving Kibaou's enraged yells behind them.

As soon as they we're out of earshot everyone except Kirito burst out laughing Klein barely managed to speak choking out "damn it Kirito ahha you weren't joking ahah" his speech then became inaudible

"It's true" Argo laughed "Ki-bou's acting skills are on another level"

"It was nice seeing that ass Kibaou get owned completely" Agil said appreciatively "That guy is such a lowlife"

Kirito just smirked at the complements a warm feeling in his chest. Oh to be amongst a group of friends he though wistfully.

"The ta-ta at the end was a really nice touch though" Sinon said as soon as she stopped laughing smirking at Kirito.

"I aim to please, or maybe to escape a mad man's death game, not really sure which though." Kirito said thoughtfully causing another round of laughter.

"We should get some sleep and start grinding in the morning it's almost night and until we get used to this floor it's better to be safe and only grind in the day."

"One thing first" Sinon said calmly "I've been the leader of this group for around 2 weeks" she said looking intently at Kirito "and I think my little stint as leader is over" she continued to look at Kirito as confusion clouded his eyes. "I think you would make a better leader than I would Kirito." Sinon stated calmly "therefore I ask you to take it from here."

Kirito looked stunned he then spoke "but, I've only been here for like 4 hours hardly enough time to get to know me!?"

"Yet it already feels like you've been here forever" the youngest of the group silica said

"She's got a point man" Klein agreed his friends nodding behind him.

"Go ki-bou!" Argo said cheerfully "The first step to gaining your own harem is to have undisputed control over a group of girls so that's one check off the list" at this Kirito nearly tripped

"Gah Argo! Quit it with that would you?" he replied grumpily

Sinon and the other girls started blushing while Klein and his friends saw this and got slightly angry at the young and clueless lady killer.

Kirito looked around and cleared his throat "if that's what you guy's think then I'll do my best" Kirito said accepting the new position. "But first things first I'm beat lets go to sleep everyone!" Kirito commanded as they arrived at a small inn. The rest of his group groggily agreed they'd only just now noticed how tired they were. And so they trudged into the inn to sleep the night away.


	6. The Devil's Conquest

**(A/N I have many people I want to thank for helping me make this story as good as it's been so far . While I have no beta and check my work myself the support of my reviewers and feedback they have given has been encouraging, but other than that I'd also like to thank the other fanfiction writers. By reading their works I've been exposed to many styles of writing allowing me to incorporate them into my own. While I can't pretend to be a particularly skilled writer I feel that my time on fanfiction has made me better than I would have been. Thanks Everyone!)**

The next two weeks went by in a blur in which Kirito spent grinding and familiarizing himself with skills and weakness of his new teammates. In the course of the week they mapped around a fourth of the dudgeon themselves as well as completing several quests. In addition all the members of Kirito's group started to buy all their armor and cloth's in black, when Kirito asked why they all replied "no reason". As it turned out they had achieved a minor celebrity status, Well Agil, Kirito and the girls anyway, but much to their horror though it was generally assumed amongst the population that Klein and his crew were just cannon fodder for the rest of them. And so along with grinding Klein and his crew went out of their way to look impressive when any people passed by in order to boost up their rep. Somehow though the rumor started up that Kirito was a prince from a foreign country that had got caught up in the game. When Kirito asked Argo about this suspiciously she said innocently

"I'm sorry Ki-bou but the rumor is too ingrained in people's minds there is nothing I can do about it now"

To which he replied "… did you do this…" in an annoyed voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about ki-bou I'm completely innocent." She had replied angelically

"If don't stop this I tell all the other information brokers that Argo's famous information network sell's false information" Kirito deadpanned

Argo replied nervously "you wouldn't"

"I would "

"Hmph" Argo said with annoyance "fine I'll look into oppressing it"

"Good" Kirito replied triumphantly

"But don't think you'll get away with this ki-bou" she said evilly as she walked away to which Kirito shivered.

The next morning the group got together splitting into 2 parties of five and one party of 4 then then set off into the dudgeon and continued mapping. After around an hour Kirito's party (the one with only 4 four) discovered a door. It only took Kirito a second to confirm that it was the boss door and he quickly shot off messages to the other party leaders. After around twenty minutes they caught up to Kirito.

"What's up kiri…." Sinon stopped mid-sentence noticing the door behind him "that's!?"

"Yup" Kirito replied "the boss door."

Agil looked at Kirito "are we going to go for it?"

"That why I called you hear I wanted to hear your opinions on the matter." Kirito replied pausing before continuing "on one hand we're over leveled well equipped and all of you have great deal of skill." He said assessing their strength's "but it's still a boss"

"But you soloed the first one!" Klein complained "With all of here it shouldn't be too hard"

"The reason I could solo the first one was that it was a boss type that was aimed to defeat tanks and heavier build swordsman" Kirito explained "therefore it was weak against agility types and with the addition of my high defense and attack It was fairly easy to defeat." Kirito continued "but even then it took out around a third of my health in one hit. The only reason I won was because it didn't have the chance to hit me."

"You forgot to mention your overkill reflexes Kirito" Sinon reminded him smirking slightly

"Well that too" Kirito said laughing slightly before continuing "what I'm saying is that my fight with the boss was a lot closer than it looked"

"What is the boss for this floor anyway" silica asked "I didn't fight this one in the beta."

"It's a giant spider mom called the crawler" Argo replied "if you cut off all of its legs its helpless for around a minute while it regenerates. Its attack are the pinchers on its mouth as well as an acid web like substance that it shoots from its mouth in addition it uses its legs to try and gut you." Argo explained

At this silica looked nervous "s-spider!?"

"Yup it's like 12 feet tall or something and has a bunch smaller spiders as guards" Argo replied flippantly not noticing the borderline terror on the younger girls face until Asuna nudged her and pointed at the now shaking Silica. "Ahh I mean it's not really that bad silica it's just um ... a pest?" she said attempting to correct her mistake, and failing miserably. Instead it was Kirito who salvaged the situation; walking up to silica he put his hand on the top of her head comfortingly

"It's okay silica we don't have to fight it, we could even just skip this boss fight if you want." He said kindly

Silica looked slightly red but put on a determined face "N-no I'm fine it just I'm a bit nervous" it was apparent to the rest of them that she did not want to disappoint Kirito of course this went straight over his head.

Kirito smiled and said "You sure?" when she nodded he continued "you have nothing to worry about everyone is looking out for you including me so if you need help just ask." Kirito looked around at the rest of the group and said smirking "Is everyone ready to go!?" he was met with a cheer from the rest of his group

"What's the plan?" Sinon asked

"Simple" Kirito said "I keep the boss distracted while you guys deal with its guards, once you've finished them off we just simply surround the boss with swordsmen one to each leg." Kirito explained "then we'll quickly bring in the big hitters to deal some heavy damage once it's down. In addition though go for the eyes when it's still standing Sinon" Kirito added looking at the resident markswomen "I'm not sure if it will blind it or anything but it should at least deal some good damage." At this Sinon nodded

"Got it" she agreed

"Asuna when we knock out the legs stab it in the eyes with a sword skill until it regenerates" Kirito continued "I'll attack it from the back with my sword skills. After around 55 seconds retreated and get ready for the legs to regenerate, before repeating the process if anything else comes up let's improvise."

They all looked at him strangely and Argo asked questioningly "Are you sure you're anti-social? Cause it seems like you've done this before, like a lot" to this Kirito looked slightly embarrassed of course the reason behind this was for a while he'd been obsessed with strategy games and playing only 2 or 3 hours a day gotten into the top ten in 3 different real –time strategy games not that he'd ever admit it he could be a perfect nerd if he tried, not of course mentioning the fact that he'd already skipped 3 grades in school.

"Ahh beginners luck?" He replied half-heartedly of course everyone just kept looking at him with neutral faces.

"Right" Sinon said breaking the silence "anyways let's go"

Kirito glad they had moved on from the awkward subject lead the group forward and into the boss room. "Let's do this!" he shouted generically dashing forward at the boss as it spawned while the rest of his group attack the spider mobs filling the room. The spider stabbed out one of its leg's at Kirito dodging swiftly he jump on the leg running quickly up it while dragging his sword behind him making a giant gash in the monster's leg. He then jumps onto its main body slashing and using weak zero cool-down sword skills and regular unguided slashes. With the high dmg rate of his blade (now level 11) and his extremely agile character (level 26) he quickly cut through part of the boss's first health bar dealing about 30% damage to it by the time his teammates had dealt with half the weak spider mobs. At this point the spider began shaking itself try to rid itself of the nuisance on its back as the last of the spider mobs was destroyed it managed to knock the swordsman off of course it only had 50% left of it first health bar meaning around 1/8 of its total health was gone while Kirito's group barely had any damage on them at all their hp bars all around 95% with plenty of healing items in reserve

"Second phase go!" Kirito shouted as he rolled onto the ground after being thrown off. The members of the party Fuurinkazan charged forward each taking on the spider's legs while Sinon began firing arrow after arrow and the boss's many eyes, as the first barrage connected the monster let out a cry of anguish as a respectable slice of hp was cast into oblivion. The attack to the legs were considerable less effected damage wise but after a couple minutes of dodging a slashing they were rewarded well as the boss came crashing down. With this the heavy hitter's consisting of Asuna, Kirito, Agil and Yukki Dashed forward. Agil swinging down his heavy war hammer on the monsters side Yukki slicing open the opposite side with her quick and deadly attacks Asuna stabbing repeatedly in the monsters face and Kirito mauling the monster with his demonic sword skills. The monster health dropped rapidly and by the time they retreated as it regrew its legs it was on its last health bar it was then that things started to get a bit hairy as the spider let out a blood curdling screech and more of the smaller spiders began crawling from the ceiling towards Kirito's group.

"Let's finish this quick" Kirito yelled urgently charging forwards towards the boss sword beginning to burn in dark flames. "Hellfire surge!" Kirito cried jumping towards the boss's face the sword skilled collided violent with the boss before Kirito jumped back and froze from the cool down. "Finish it off quickly" Kirito cried as it only had a sliver of health left in its final health bar. The army of spiders began to surround them and more were coming. His cry was answered by Sinon who charging a skill with her crossbow.

"Eat this you bastard" she shouted firing a glowing blue bolt directly at the monster's eye's it collided with a bright light and the monster shattered with a final death screech. As soon as the boss was destroy the other spiders all cried out in pain a shattered into polygons. Kirito's entire group froze for a second before breaking out it cheer!

"We did it!" Asuna cried excitedly

"Let's see them call us cannon fodder now" Fuurinkazan cried out as one

"Take that you damn spiders!" Silica cried causing everyone to pause and look at the normally quiet 12 year old who blushed heavily.

For a second there was silence before everyone burst out laughing and agreeing with Silica. During this time only Sinon had been quiet looking at a screen on her menu. Kirito walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder causing her to jump "Waa!" she said surprised

At this Kirito just smiled and asked "what did you get as the last drop?!"

The rest of the group looked at her expectantly

"A blackwood crossbow" she replied happily

"Nice!" Kirito responded "go on equip it!"

Sinon complied looking through her inventory her old crossbow vanished replaced with a new one the wood was very smooth and a dark black color, the string looked pale white and smooth, Kirito realized it had the same texture as spider silk there also appeared to be a small scope on the weapon as well as what looked like 2 bayonets sticking out of the front one on each side of the place where the arrow was placed

Smirking Kirito said "two down 98 to go, let's go activate the next city portal maybe I'll get to verbally beat the crap out of kiboau or however the hell you pronounce his name.

Argo looked at Kirito "you seriously forgot how to pronounce his name?"

To this Kirito smiles and says cheerfully "I got better things to waste my brain cells on than him." Argo snorted shaking her head while the rest of the group burst out laughing.

**(A/N: it's not that Kirito actually forgot it's that I forgot lol and I'm too lazy to look it up lol anyway hope you enjoyed the chapter.)**


	7. The Devil's Fortress

**(A/n I don't know the environment of most of the floor of Aincraid as such I'm going to make a lot of them up. There is going to be a larger time skip quite soon so don't worry about having to read up all 75 floors lol I'm not that patient. On another note the reason I said Kirito skipped three grades was because if you think about it when Yui was being erased he just walked up the console and freakin hacked the thing creating an entity and copying a complex code in like half a minute. Add to the fact he hasn't seen a compute console in like 2 years meaning he must have known how to hack like a pro at the age of 14 and have been common enough with it to remember it after 2 years. sorry for not updating last weekend i was throwing up my guts for the majority of it hence i didn't have time to write (-~-) **

It only took around 2 more weeks for the third floor to be cleared. This time Kibaou and his flunkies had been the ones to find the boss. Unfortunately for them when he and his men attempted to defeat it themselves they suffered horrendous causalities out of his 50 men 22 were killed in the boss fight, so while in the end they had cleared the floor they were not elevated to the same status as Kirito and his group. Kirito and his group were currently traversing the forested and mountainous terrain of the 4th floor.

"It should be around here." Argo said looking at her map intently

I looked at her skeptically and asked "where did you get this information again?"

"Don't look at me like that it's better than just wandering around aimlessly" she said annoyed

"No actually" Kirito explained "if we limit our search to somewhere it is not then in becomes impossible to find as compared to really difficult" he finished, murdering Argo's logic.

"Shut up" she said pouting.

Kirito smirked "I'm only joking it's probably around here somewhere." He opened his mouth to continue when a voice called out

"Kirito! Argo! We found it!" they looked up to see a girl with long flowing chestnut brown hair and hazel eyes running towards them.

"Where is it?" Kirito replied grinning at the approaching Asuna

Asuna hesitated for a moment before blushing and grabbing Kirito's hand and pulling him after her "this way".

Argo meanwhile was left in the dust she then frowned and said in a quiet voice "well played Asuna, well played, but don't think this is the end" Before running after their retreating backs.

"It's this way Kirito" Asuna said pulling him along through the forest suddenly she took a slight detour in a cave that was hidden behind a large boulder.

"What about Argo?" Kirito asked as he was pulled along against his will.

Asuna shrugged indifferently and said "she has her tracking skill, not to mention she has her friend's list locator"

"What if she gets attacked by a pker or something" Kirito continued still worried

"What pker could take out a member of our guild at this point?" Asuna pointed out determined to have some alone time with the dark haired youth.

"true" Kirito conceited, their newly formed guild was known as the a group of the most premier clearers of SAO and was respected by many and feared by anyone who did not fit the former, even though they had not cleared the 3rd floor that had still contributed a great deal of mapping data. In addition to this on the last floor they had lead the capture of a small pk guild known as The Fallen**. **Although there had only been around 15 members in the guild Kirito had stated that it was best to crush this kind of thing early before it developed too far.

"Um Kirito" Asuna said blushing and looking away "I have a question"

"What's up?" Kirito asked a lopsided smile on his face

"Uhh… well you see … w-will… will you go" Asuna started shakily her face turning red only to be interrupted by an excitable voice

"Ki-bou~" a singsong voice called out as Kirito felt something or rather someone press into his back hugging him from behind.

"Argo" Kirito said simply, over the course of the last 3 weeks Kirito had rapidly grown immune to Argo's method of greeting, to say the least, although it still made the other girls grind their teeth in annoyance. Sinon especially had been tempted to break her normal tough girl personage once and a while but ultimately became too nervous to do so. Kirito of course was blissfully unaware of the war over him going on behind his back.

This was mainly due to the fact that the girls had agreed that it would stay off the battle field. And while Kirito was indeed smart the complex algorithms that makes up the female personality was beyond even the most intelligent of genii**. (A/N that's the plural form of genius).** This of course frustrated the girls as they were nervous to bring it up fearing they would unbalance Kirito and end up getting him killed due to his emotional unbalance, or so they rationalized to themselves anyway. The few times one of the girls had been able to begin a confession the mood was ruined when another of the girls happened to show up.

This cycle had repeated itself for the last 2 weeks it was quiet amazing and depressing to the other guys in the group. They half marveled and how he had them all wrapped around his finger and didn't even realize it in the slightest. One the other hand they were horrifyingly depressed at how it seemed to be that he was able to pick any girl he wanted as his girlfriend inside and outside the guild if he had been away and interested. All the girls they met were throwing themselves at the charismatic young warrior. Kirito again was clueless of the situation and yet he continued to lure in more and more girls. In the 3 weeks since the clearing of the first floor it was estimated that around 53% of the girls in Aincraid were pursuing him. Although unbeknown to Kirito and his guild a lesser number of these girls numbering approximately 23 had created a guild with the sole purpose of seducing him know as the Cult of Kirito. Another statistic that Kirito would not have been happy to know was that approximately 5% of the male population was after him too. (**A/N I've got nothing against gays btw**).

Kirito and his guild were currently attempting to locate the mansion he had won in the last of his solo quests. As it turned out it was in a very secluded location in the mountains and despite the difficulty they had so far had in finding it Kirito was secretly grateful for this. As Asuna led him and Argo through the forested area they walked into what appeared to be a dead end. The narrow path was barley visible between to mountains but they found Sinon and the rest of the group waiting for them there.

"Kirito it's this way" Sinon called out gesturing ahead to the gate that was a few feet down the thin path. There was a large stone battlement around 7 feet across blocking the path completely with a reinforced wooden door in the center strips of rusted metal running across the front of the door. The battlement its self-looked rather worn and as Kirito walked up to the battlement he hit it with is sword to his surprise a health bar came up .

Stone battlement Lv1: HP 70,765/200,000

"Well the guard said that it was a bit worn." Kirito said sadly "we're going to need to recruit someone to help fortify the base" Kirito said manipulating his inventory. "Argo, Can you get on that?"

"Got it ki-bou" she replied opening her own menu and beginning to prepare various messages to send once they were back in a 'safe zone'.

Materializing the key to the door Kirito fit it into the lock as he turned the key the door clicked and the key shattered and a popup window appear 'you now own this building'. Smirking Kirito quickly switch the access to guild only and closed his menu. Peeking through the door it revealed that the battlement was little more that guard house. Walking through to the other side Kirito pulled open the door in the back. As the door to the front was closed by Argo the 'safe zone' status popped up on their screen.

Kirito exited the back of the guard house and nearly tripped, in front of him was a massive building. It looked a mix between a European medieval castle and mansion. It was rather large as well with its back to a face of sheer rock it had a front yard of around 6-7 acres the building itself was around 60 feet tall and the front wall looked to be anywhere between 200 and 300 feet across. The first 10 feet up was fortified stone but as it grew taller it became more house like there was an open iron gate acting as the door of the building.

Like the guard house the entire building look rather worn and old. examining the yard carefully Kirito noticed several burned out buildings that look like they had served various purposes in the past. There was what looks like it had been a forge as well as a falling apart mill next to a fenced in field that took up around 2 acres of the yard and was overgrown with weeds. Farming was an uncommon skill in Sao due to the fact that it required large amounts of land and patience as it took around 3-4 days for the plants to grow. There were a few other buildings that Kirito couldn't identify

"Argo," Kirito said breathlessly while looking around "we going to need more than one person."


	8. The Devil's Architect

**(A/N: Hi guys (and girls) I've been struggling over something in my story for a while, what should the name of Kirito's guild be? I don't plan on it following the stories title but I can't think of anything catchy. Please review with ideas if you have any and are willing to share I will site you as the 'owner' of the name Thanks! Also while Kirito may be immune to Argo's 'greeting' there are many things he has not yet become immune to. Argo will exploit this endlessly.) **

-2 and a half weeks earlier-

The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon in the world of Aincraid when a figure scurried out the front gate of the starting city. The second floor had been cleared around 2 days ago without a casualty this further reinforced the belief that the illustrious guild led by the black swordsman was the only hope people had of ever seeing the outside world again. The figure continued into the fields outside eyes set on a particular destination.

For the past month and a half this figure had been one of the many hiding on the first floor of Aincraid huddled inside the city. She had been hopeless and scared hiding in the inn paranoid beyond belief, until 2 days ago that is, when she had first saw them. As the blue pixels of the teleportation fading she caught sight of the rumored guild, and was stunned into silence. Many of the players in the guild we're her age if not younger, this included their leader.

He was a black haired boy dressed in the dark clothing that seemed common place in his guild. His golden eyes were tinted with a few faint touches of onyx along the outside of his irises. But beyond his good looks his aura was breathtaking. His aura was kind but firm accepting yet superior in his own way. He looked more like a prince than anything else and she whispered in a shadow of a voice "wow he looks like a prince or something."

"You're right" someone on her left agreed before mention it to the others in her group. They all agreed and started swooning about him shamelessly

Sighing the girl began to walk away from the obvious fan girls focusing her attention on the backs of the black garbed guild. As they slowly walked away, she felt belittled and disappointed about her actions; here were people her own age bravely risking their own lives to help free everyone while she hid. Determination rushing through her veins, she teleported back the first floor and ponder her course of action.

She had eventually decided she would not be able to join with just the ability to fight. Not to mention she was not confident of her ability despite being a beta she was a novice mmo player and had only reached level 7 by the end of the beta. The only thing about her character she had been proud of was the fact that her crafting skills had been relatively high. A determined look on her face she resolved to train her crafting skills till they were top of the class.

- Present day-

"Hey Kirito" Argo called looking up.

"What's up" the effeminate lady killer asked curiously "you find some good crafters?" He said hopefully

Argo sighed "that's the problem" she said "almost everyone who's not cowering in the starting city is a warrior of some type."

Kirito sighed "Damn, well I guess we should have someone train up their crafting skill if we can't find anyone." He said "I have enough money to supply the materials needed to level up quickly. It'll cost a pretty penny though."

"And until we get that guild portal gate up we won't be able to get to town easily, not to mention if that wall falls we'll lose the safe zone bonus." She agreed

"Hm?" Argo said suddenly reading a message "I think I might have something" she said

"Really?" Kirito asked hopefully.

"Yup," Argo replied "apparently there's been someone whose been grinding their crafting skills nonstop for the past few weeks."

"Can you get in contact with them?"

"Yeah it's a girl going by the name of ….."

-A few hours later-

It had been 2 and half weeks since she had started grinding her skills and she had reached a reasonable level for that time. One of the benefits about being the best smith/ crafter around was that everyone came to her for business. Well almost everyone anyways she had unfortunately yet to see a member of the black swordsman's guild grace her store. She had begun to worry that they already had an exclusive crafter or something. So day in day out she had toiled making sword after sword item after item. Despite selling and crafting all types of items she had decided to officially be a smith shop since it sounded nice. She was torn out of her line of though by the sound of a bell ringing signaling someone had entered her small yet cozy store on the second floor.

"Hello and welcome to Lizbeth's smith shop." She said in a friend and thoroughly rehearsed voice. She looked up and was met with the face of a girl around her age maybe a bit younger. Her hair was shoulder length and she had excitable eyes that seemed to sparkle in the dim lights of the store.

"Nice store you got here" she said smiling before continuing "but can your skills match up with it?"

This irked Lizbeth's slightly "What are you implying exactly."

"Hmm?" the girl replied airily "Oh nothing I was just wondering if you we're good enough."

"I'll have you know I have the highest crafting levels in this area" she said confidently

The other girl just shrugged and said smirking again "1 is still higher than zero you know"

At this Lizbeth clenched her teeth and said in retaliation "fine I'll have you know that my smithing, construction, and miscellaneous crafting skills are all at around level 80."

At this the other girl raised her eyebrow and said in a slightly impressed voice "nicely done" then smiling she continued "you'll do just fine" she then brought up her menu and began typing.

"What are you doing" Lizbeth said questioningly.

The girl finished sending a message and then opened her equipment menu and quickly tapped an item in her inventory. In a flash of polygons face paint appeared on her face creating the image of whiskers "I was wondering if you'd like to join a guild? Our illustrious leader is going to be here rather soon to invite you if you wish."

Lizbeth's eyes widened in shock and she whispered "Argo the rat" swallowing she said "you're part of …." She was interrupted by the sound of the bell at the front of her shop. Whirling around her voice caught in her throat. In walking calmly in to her shop was a boy with golden eyes tinted with touches of onyx along the outside of his irises. Swallowing she forced out three words "The Black Swordsman"

-A few hours earlier-

…Lizbeth" Argo said glancing up a Kirito she spoke "I don't know her exact skill level though and I'd like to find out before we extend and offer"

"Why?" Kirito asked frowning slightly

"Because I don't want her to know what guild the person recruiting her is from." Argo said simply "If she knows where were from she'll act all nice and shit and then later we'll find out she a manipulative bitch or something" Argo explained "plus you got to make a badass entrance" she muttered under her breath

"What?" Kirito asked

"Nothing," Argo assured "be on standby if I send the conformation."

"Got it, I'll wait outside in a bush or something" Kirito sighed.

Argo just smirked.

-Present-

Lizbeth just stood there mouth opening and closing like a gold fish as the black garbed youth walked closer step by step. He stopped around 4 feet away and Lizbeth shook herself out of her stupor "wait, you don't mean…" she said stunned

"If you don't wish to join we'll respect you decision" the only badass pretty boy swordsman in the room said calmly.

"Yeah if you don't want to just say it and were gone" the only dru- I mean information dealer in the room agreed.

Lizbeth's eyes widened "no no no, I want to join its just I'm a bit surprised, I mean you guys are.." despite her goal there was a little part of her who never really believe she had a chance and yet.

A message popped up in front of her face, she froze, it was a guild invite. Looking at it intently she slowly lifted her finger up hovering over the yes option. Then she looked up and around as if wonder if they were seriously inviting her or if they we're going to burst out laughing and say just kidding. Seeing no sign of it being a joke she took a breath and accepted the invite.


	9. Chasing shadows

**(A/N: Hi guys I'm back and lazier than ever, the only thing allowing me to concentrate on writing right now is reviews, spamming mountain dew, Hollywood undead, oh and did I mention reviews? Also I find it strange that someone named SpeaksInRiddles wonders why he/she rambles on -_- thanks for the name btw ^-^ and thanks for everyone who contributed ideas they were creative even though they weren't chosen. Also I am amazed to state that out of all my reviews, 35 at this point, none and I mean none of them have been flames, pretty amazing right ^-^…. Wait shit I just jinxed myself XD**** )**

Kirito slowly became aware of his surroundings; he was in his room in his guild's fortress. He began to stand up and get ready. "*sigh*, another day another death match." He quickly equipped his gear and walked out of his room down to the dining hall. It had been around half a week since his guild had cleared the 9th floor boss. Unfortunately this floor promised to be a rather difficult. It was covered in dense jungle with no obvious paths and a lot of poison based monsters.

He walked into the loud dining hall for a moment when he entered it quieted down. After the fourth floor they had begun to recruit in Earnest taking only the best of the best or those willing to work hard to become so. Their guild, The Black Mark **(Brought to you in part *sigh* entirely by SpeaksInRiddles)**, had become a real force in Aincraid with around 60 members. This was a lot at this point in the game add to the fact that it was 60 of the most skilled fighters in Aincraid at that the time and you had a deadly force.

It was well known that you didn't go to The Black Mark, if they wanted you they'd come to you. Many had made the mistake of attempting to muscle the recruiters into accepting them. The result was that they found themselves losing miserably in a duel or if things escalated going to jail for assault after a thorough ass kicking.

Kirito's boots clacked on the floor as he walked to the front of the room. His sat down at what was dubbed as the commanders table. The only people who sat there was Kirito's inner circle Aka the original members of The Black Mark plus Lizbeth. A new recruit would at first be stunned by their leader's complete obliviousness of the girls fighting over him. Later they would notice how he was interacting with them in such a way that they never got angry at him and grew closer and closer to him. It was seemingly by accident which inspired a great amount respect and fear. If this was him not even trying to get a girl what would he be like if he actually tried?

Of course what shocked them even more was the sheer number of girls he managed to sustain this type of relationship with. He was somehow manipulating (whether he was aware of it or not) 12 girls, six from his inner circle and six more from their regular contingency, like this. Despite this he still somehow managed to continue to look so far above them in a way. He just seemed so unreachable, as if he was permanently place on a pedestal so high above them. Yet at the same time he was extremely likeable, maintaining a good relationship with his fellow guild-mates.

In combat he was a far cry from everyone else not just in levels though. They all saw that their leader was a born warrior, both in combat and tactics. As such everyone in the guild had a immense amount of respect for the young badass pretty boy swordsman. They were an incredibly efficient guild, over the course of their existence they had yet to have a single causality in their ranks. There were a few close calls in the past few weeks due to the recent increase in pkers in Aincraid.

It was estimated that around 200 players were orange and around 10 were still green but assisting these orange players. Progress on the frontlines had slowed to a crawl due to this as there was much risk in sending out the lightly armed scouting groups previously used for mapping. As a result the majority of the front lines were currently concentrating on apprehending the criminals. This of course included The Black Mark. Argo and her group of 4 other handpicked informants were gathering information, taking names and kicking asses, or so she said anyway.

"Ki-bou!" a voice called from behind him.

Kirito sighed "speak of the devil" he muttered before turning around and preparing to be molested in public. He was not disappointed as she grabbed his head and slammed his face into her … chest hugging him. Kirito's face of course decided to paint itself comically red to the amusement of everyone except for 11 girls currently present. 5 of which were senior members, of these five Sinon and Asuna stood up simultaneously and ripped Argo off of him glaring.

"What are you doing?" Sinon said annoyed "have you no shame?"

"Doing something like that in public that's just indecent!" Asuna agreed.

"Humph" Argo smirked "You're just jealous aren't you" she smirked and continued in a sultry whisper "you're jealous that you haven't yet felt Ki-bou's hot breath on your skin. The way it tingles and sends shivers down your spine" she licked her lips smirking

At this both girls blushed and Sinon began to attempt to deny it "n-no it's just that it's… uh …"

"It's indecent and uhhh…Will lower moral!" Asuna continued

"Yeah!" Sinon agreed "they'll lose faith in their leader if he seems to be easily swayed!" she added

"Hmm" Argo mused "I guess you're right I'll do it in private next time okay?"

"Good!" Sinon said before hearing the second part of Argo's sentence "Ah no wait next time?"

"Yeah next time Kirito comes back from work I'll give him a nice relaxing massage she smirked then we'll…" she moved her mouth right next to Sinon and Asuna's ears before whispering something. This 'something' caused both Sinon and Asuna to light up like Christmas trees.

"y-you can't d-do t-that!" Asuna argued flustered.

"Why not?" Argo smirked.

"T-that's b-because t-this is a game o-of c-course" Sinon said stuttering and blushing "you can't do that here!" she her voice growing slightly steadier.

Argo just smirked and brought up her menu fiddling with the options menu and making it visible and showing Asuna and Sinon something on her menu.

"W-WHAT!?" Sinon cried once again fluster "B-but that's!

Asuna was likewise effected glancing over at Kirito Sinon and Asuna blushed heavily at the youth who had long ago gone back to eating his breakfast oblivious to the current direction of the conversation**.(A/N in case you haven't guessed this is Argo showing them the ethics code off option.)**

Kirito looked up and saw their red faces "is something wrong?" looking concerned a slight frown on his face

This expression gave Sinon and Asuna nosebleeds as their blushes intensified 'so cute!' They thought. Most of the onlookers swore they could see steam coming out of the girls ears, and then started laughing at their leaders clueless antics.

Argo then grew serious "I have some more information on the Pking guild laughing coffin" everyone in the room grew serious looking intently at Argo. "There are two main leaders, one of whom is a bit of a blast from the past" at this Kirito frowned

"What do you mean?" he said

"The first leader is an unidentified man going by the alias PoH, the other…." She trailed off

"Is a man name Kibaou." she finished at this most of the room went silent.

"Bastard," Kirito said calmly recalling the man's physcopathic attitude "so his whole anti-beta crusade was just a way for him to get people unorganized and killed eh?" Kirito stood up a dark look on his face. "People like him believe that those with strength can walk over the weak without mercy." He snorted darkly "Yet there is nothing people like him hate more than someone who is stronger than them." He then looked around at the men and women sitting around in the dining hall and spoke "and yet I'm looking at a room filled with people stronger than he is by leaps and bounds." At this the assembled group cheered

Kirito spoke again "So I guess we have no choice but to go out there and kick his ass" he said whimsically almost as if talking about something simple like going shopping or mowing the lawn.

There was another cheer from the crowd and Kirito smirked before turning to Argo "any info on the location of their base?" Kirito asked her.

"I'm on it already we have several leads we are currently investigating" Argo confirmed

At this Kirito just nodded "we should try to get a few more strong recruits before we attack them. Not to mention we should coordinate with a few other front line guilds to destroy laughing coffin."

"Got it I'll get on it immediately" she affirmed.

"Good, I want that cactus in a pot by the end of the month" he said walking out of the dining hall


	10. Perspectives

(**A/N Hi everybody someone commented on my lack of show don't tell like description and I have to agree he (or she) was correct. This chapter is an attempt to show the why to the what mkay? Thanks for everybody who's given me constructive reviews (and encouragement), favorited and followed my story. Enjoy the chapter ^-^)**

Asuna sighed heavily lying down on her bed and opening her menu. She stared at the option for the 5th time, Ethics code off. She wasn't normally that type of girl but in reality she was afraid. Afraid she would be too late; afraid he'd chose someone else. It's not like she was the only contender after all. At least 11 other girls were interested in him one of which had no problem using almost any means necessary to get him.

She knew he would never have a relationship based solely on something like that though. But they were friends, he had said so himself, and even if she almost never took advantage of it she knew he would help her in any way possible the same being true for the rest of his friends. She hoped that maybe… she sighed. She really didn't know what she hoped, that it would make him love her? That he'd start to treat her specially? She didn't know, the only things she knew were that for the first time in her life she was in love, she was in love with a wonderful caring and yet clueless guy. She also knew that if she let him slip through her fingers she would regret it for the rest of her life.

She wasn't alone in her revelation though. It was shockingly obvious; before they knew it 12 girls had their hearts enraptured with love including her. Her memories were filled with him, His smile, and his hair blowing in the gentle wind, his words like music, soft and gentle. Her heart was always light when she was with him, like a weight was lifted off her as he laughed in his carefree manor. With thoughts like this Asuna drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Sinon wasn't an emotional girl. Ever since that incident when she was younger she had always been quiet, fierce, and yet withdrawn. She always did her best to hide her emotions and had succeeded, except when they were related to one person. At first she had though he was attractive but quickly it became more than that. He seemed to be able to be all the things she wanted to be without the downsides.

He was able to be strong and untouchable at will and yet display emotions. He laughed, he joked, and yet she somehow still felt he was strong, stronger than anyone or anything else. She was jealous until she realized how she was acting around him. She relaxed, for the first time in months, no years she was relaxing, she was displaying emotion. And yet people still respected her, she was still a warrior.

It was like being around him had awoken something in her, the part that laughed, the part the cried, and the part that gave a damn about what people felt. She cared if one of her friends were sad she was happy when they were happy and she honestly couldn't have felt better. It became so she was actively seeking his attention, seeking to have his smile directed at her. It had been a few weeks before she could put name to the feeling.

Love.

She Asada Shino, alias Sinon, the cold and emotionless loner, was in love. And there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

* * *

Love… she had heard the word a million times in books and stories since she was young. She had always dreamed of her prince charming coming to her rescue and taking her off to live in a castle. In a weird way Silica's wish was granted though not how she'd hoped. Why? Because she didn't think he loved her, yet. He was a bit older than her, she was well aware of this and yet she felt it didn't matter. After all she had always believed that love was timeless.

When she had first found out that she was trapped in a death game she had been shocked and terrified if she hadn't met Sinon and the others she honestly thought she would not have made it, one way or another. She had for a while felt a bit safer with them, never truly safe mind you, but safer. But then they'd met him. His grace and calmness, his posture and attitude all of these things left her no doubt. He was indeed a charming prince but the problem lay in the fact that he wasn't hers, not yet anyway she thought.

Many would say she was too young to know such feelings but she disagreed. The fluttering of her heart when he smiled at her, the way she felt happy just being around him. Despite what others might say she knew what love was and she was truly undoubtedly in love. And she was enjoying every single moment of it.

* * *

When he had first walked into her shop her heart had leapt into her throat. She had seen him from a distance once before but it didn't have the same effect. The way the light seemed to play with his eyes and how his hair seemed to flow with the non-existent wind. She was immediately entranced, when his later actions showed he did not expect her to simply agree to join just because of who he was she was further impressed.

Over the next few weeks as she slowly, but steadily, finished repairing the base of the black mark she began to become afraid. Afraid that once she was finished she would become useless and eventually removed from the guild. As she saw more and more players join the black mark and how strong each and every one of them was her fears intensified.

When it turned out that after the base was completely repaired it gave the option to begin upgrading the various facilities she felt a huge weight lifted off her which is when it struck her. She was happy, happy to be part of this guild, happy to be around the people she'd come to call friends. She then realized something else, which was that her idolization of him had changed into something. With each conversation each joke and smile they shared he became less of an idol and more of a person.

She also realized she had begun to care more and more what he thought of her. Did he think she looked cute in this? Did he think she was fun to be around? All of these questions all centered around him and it was then she realized what it was. She Shinozaki Rika was in love, and she was not alone in this respect.

* * *

For most of her life she had been alone and unmatched. She was hailed as a kendo prodigy and a genius having skipped 2 grades. She had entered the finals in hopes to meet an opponent who would prove an actual challenge all the way up until the match before the finals she had yet to meet anyone who was even close. She had begun to lose hope in ever meeting anyone till he stepped on the field against her in the semi-finals.

She had at first been shocked as a boy with midnight black hair finished putting on his helmet and stepped onto the floor. This was her opponent in the semi-finals? She hoped he may prove to be more of challenge than the rest of them had been. As soon as the fight began something happened to her that she had never felt before. She was being overwhelmed; his speed and grace outclassed her completely without any apparent effort.

When she had lost he had taken of his helmet and thanked her sincerely for the match. She had shaken his hand in a daze and when he later won the finals without any apparent effort she wasn't surprised. For the first time in her life she had a goal.

When she had seen him fighting the kobold part of her had realized who he was even before she saw his face. His speed his grace the style she had watch over and over again on tape in her attempts to grow stronger. Yes she knew who he was before she saw his face. She had been stunned when he had recognized her the second she had stepped into his view.

As weeks passed they began battling together more and more skillfully slicing through their opponents switching gracefully. It was then she began to notice the change in how she looked at him. When he partnered with someone else she had felt a pang of jealous which stopped her cold. I mean sure he was cute but he was just her partner right? The next time she had partnered him she had noticed it the light hearted feeling she got when fighting at his side. She later realized it was not necessarily fighting next to him just doing something with him.

Whether it was going to the market to buy something or reviewing potential recruit with him she felt happy. What was initially just her chasing after the first person she had ever lost to slowly became much more. With each passing these feelings grew and grew until she was forced to face what it was…Love.

* * *

It wasn't easy for her to make friends. Ever since she was little she could memorize anything with little difficulty. What was looked at as a blessing to her parents became a curse for her. Sure kids wanted to be her friends but not for who she was but what she was, a genius. They wanted her to do their homework or help them finish their projects not play with them or hang out with them.

When she had first met he had done something no one had done in years. He corrected her; she had made a slight miscalculation charging him slightly less than was actually due. He had done it in an instant without any obvious effort. He had just bought around 16 different pieces of information and found the total amount in an instant.

She had been intrigued, was he like her? And so she had begun to attempt to befriend him. It was then she noticed the difference between the two of them. Her smile was false, a defense against the world around her, his was real. Around a week after she had met him something happened that she never thought would, ever again. She smiled. Not her normal fake smile but a real I'm happy smile.

She then began to seek his company more and more, she then began to become afraid when he started asking her slightly personal questions. Simple things like what her favorite food was or even her favorite color. It wasn't that these were things that were creepy to ask about it was that he was the first person to ever ask. He had helped her open up which resulted in her meeting her second friend, Asuna. When the beta had ended she was overcome with sadness looking forward with anticipation to the games release.

At the end of the tutorial she had been terrified, for herself and the two people who she could truly call friends she had been incredibly relieved when she had met Asuna again. But despite befriending the members of her group she felt the fear in her heart grow with every passing day. She was truly worried about her first real friend the person who had broken down the walls she had built around herself.

When she saw him fighting the first boss she was stunned. As the boss shattered and he came into view standing in his familiar way she had been frozen, he was alive! After an hour or so as they were chasing after him she had begun to fear that it was not actually him. But later when she had confirmed it was him her heart felt light as air.

Despite how she may have acted she genuinely cared about his well-being and would never take a joke to far as to hurt him in anyway. She found that seeing his real face was like a weight off her shoulders he was her age and just as nice as he appeared in the beta. So she allowed herself to grow closer and closer to him.

She wasn't stupid she knew exactly how she felt. She could calmly admit that she was in love with him. The first person to care about the little things about her, the first person to ask her about herself and actually seem interested when she answered.

* * *

**(A/N: obviously this is done in a way directly showing their thoughts so if you couldn't figure out who was who here is the order Asuna, Sinon, Silica, Lizbeth, Yukki, and Argo. Yukki and Argo's are longer because we know less about them from canon and I changed up Yukki's back ground even if I did keep the whole loner thing for different reasons.) **


	11. The Darkness at your back

In the days following the discovery of the leaders of laughing coffin Argo's information network worked double time, attempting to locate the pkers. Despite their hard work it seemed like no one could find the allusive guild. The members of laughing coffin seemed to be able to predict all of their moves before they made them. It wasn't long before Kirito began suspecting a traitor among the group of guilds they were working with. He trusted the members of his guild though because each and every one in his guild had undergone an extensive background check. This check included being tailed by one of Argo's informants for a term of at least 38 hours over the course of a week or two.

As such Kirito began organizing his guild to act independently after explaining his suspicions to the other coordinating guilds. Despite this they had little better luck than before as the guild laughing coffins were obviously extremely careful when performing their operations. It had been at a standstill when Silica of all people had come up with a solution. They had been discussing the situation over breakfast at the time.

"I still think that their base might be on the 3 floor" Argo said "the misty forest are a known labyrinth and despite the low level monsters it's easy to get lost." She explained "add that to the fact that there are lots of underground caverns and abandoned buildings in the forest and you got the perfect creep fest."

"Maybe" Kirito said before continuing "but I think they might want to keep close to the front lines as they can't be in town to use the teleports it requires them to manually climb up the tower one floor at a time. If they wanted to get enough money to make a reasonable profit they would have to be on at least floor 6 I'd say."

"True" Argo agreed conceding the point "most player kills occur on the 6th, 7th, and 8th floors just behind the frontlines.

"Um Kirito" Silica had said uncertainly

"What's up Silica?" Kirito said turning to her smiling slightly

Silica blushed a bit and said uncertainly "If they have to climb the floors manually couldn't some people camp out on the stairs and ambush the orange players as they moved up?" she said nervously.

Kirito just froze staring at her. A minute passed, then two, silica was getting decidedly uncomfortable before Kirito said whilst slamming his head on the table repeatedly "Why - didn't - I - think of that! Silica you're a genius!" he said hitting his head on the table one last time solidly. Ignoring the immortal object pop up on the stone table he turned to Argo.

"I need a list of everyone in our guild that has a hiding level surpassing 300 that can fight effectively in close quarters." He told Argo.

She nodded in response "On it." She began shooting of messages quickly ignoring her half eaten breakfast.

Kirito stood up and as he walked out he stopped behind Silica and put a hand on her head "Great work Silica" he said smirking winningly he turned around and walked out of the dining hall leaving the heavily blushing Silica behind. The other people in the room just sighed shaking their heads at their leader's cluelessness.

2 days later Kirito and around 15 members of his guild were waiting in ambush hidden in the shadows behind various statues in the cleared boss room of floor 7. They had been staked out here for around 6 hours and Kirito was glad that there was no in game fatigue if there was he would be in horrible pain at this point. He was just about to call it a night and retreat back to town with his squad when he heard footsteps.

His men immediately tense silently drawing his weapon Kirito put a finger to his lips looking at his men. They all nodded pulling out their own weapons as they heard voices coming from the area ahead.

"Damn there's been nothing but poor weaklings lately." A gruff voice said angrily.

"I know right?" another voice said "maybe we should go after one of those front liner guilds" the voice continued "maybe the black mark, I've heard they have their own personal blacksmith that makes all of their gear barring rare item drops."

"You crazy?" a third voice said "those guys are the best of best, I've heard."

"Tch, I've heard there lead by some arrogant brat who thinks he's a complete badass just because he dresses in black." A fourth voice said as they walked into the room. The voice was revealed to belong to a gruff looking man with blood red hair wielding a two hand sword. A quick glance at their group confirmed what they already knew; they were a group of 7 orange players.

"I bet I could kick his ass if I ever met him." the man continued as he stopped in front of the exact statue Kirito was behind his back turned.

Kirito couldn't resist and signaled his men, like wraith he slipped from the shadows silently. Unnoticed by the man's comrades he glided up to the pkers unguarded back. Kirito then pressed his blade to the man's neck whispering in a snakelike voice "Iss that ssso?" before laughing evilly much to the amusement of his men as they immerged from the shadows.

The swiftly surrounded the group weapons drawn and at the ready. The red haired man had frozen and was shaking heavily. "Who a-are y-you?"

"Who am I?" Kirito replied "oh I'm just some arrogant brat who thinks he's a complete badass" he continued in a dark whisper." Kirito smiled darkly at the six other members of the pkers and continued "I'd put down you're weapons if I were you" he paused laughing "if you want to live that is"

The 6 pkers hesitated for a second looking at each other before dropping their weapons swiftly.

"That includes you" Kirito said to the man in front of him who was still clutching his sword in his pale fist. When the man did nothing Kirito slowly began pressing his blade against the man's neck with more and more strength. The man's health dropped swiftly to around 80 courtesy of Kirito over-leveled character and high level blade. The man's weapon clattered to the ground and Kirito reduced the strength he was using ceasing the attack.

Kirito's men watch on in amusement as their leader continued to get in the character form of a physcopathic villain (the complete opposite of his normal mood) figuring he was getting revenge for the red haired players comment as well as for being pkers in general. Pulling out several location teleport crystals the members of Kirito's squad teleported the 6 pkers to the dudgeon located in the basement of the black marks fortress leaving only the red hair man behind.

"You know" Kirito said conversationally " If I just pressed a little harder with my sword right know you know what would happen?" he asked the orange player as he simultaneously pressed a bit harder with his blade causing the man's health to drop marginally.

The man just shook staring at his health bar in horror as it slowly dropped bit by bit " I wouldn't even get in trouble for it" Kirito continued as the bar dropped out of green. "And I'd get all of your money and a nice bit of XP too. I could just say you tried to escape and I was forced to kill you" he laughed again the man's health bar dropped into the red leaving about 30 percent. It kept dropping until when it was at twenty percent Kirito suddenly dropped the struggling man throwing him to the ground.

Switching back to his normal voice Kirito "how does it feel?" he said pausing "to look death in the eye and be helpless? Each and every person you scum have killed felt the same way." Kirito looked at the man angrily as he whimpered on the floor "not so fun when the boot's on the other foot is it?" he said nodding to one of his men who swiftly used a teleport crystal.

As soon as the man teleported away the entire stealth squad gave him a look.

"What?" Kirito asked they just stared at him "come on guys I wasn't gonna do anything serious, and he deserved it" they continued to stare him "….guys?" Kirito said again

They all burst out laughing "leader are you gonna pursue a career in theater after this?" a voice called out.

"Yeah!" another voice called out agreeing "you'd make the perfect badass super villain!"

At this Kirito just sweat-dropped at his guild-mates reaction he supposed he kind of deserved it, he might, and I say might, have taken that a little tiny bit too far but the bastard deserved it.

"Hey boss!" one the men called "You gonna do that to Kibaou when we catch him?" the man continued "Cause if so do it on a vid crystal, his face would be priceless!"

Kirito just sighed face palming, he was never going to live this down.

Suddenly turning serious he called out "move out! It's time to return to the base." He said. At his word his men immediately sobered up becoming serious and lining up in the loose and liquid defensive formation they usually traveled in. checking the formation quickly Kirito took his place at the front a signaled for his men to move.

**(A/N Whoa Kirito! Got a little dark there for a moment didn't you -_-**** geez. Anyway we got to see Kirito scare the shit out of a pker today as well as set them up to find Kibaou the reason why Kirito's reaction was so dark will be revealed later in the series. not that none of the girls were present as most of them Aren't situated for close quarters combat and stealth and Argo was busy gathering information.)**


	12. The Darkness in your heart

**(A/N hello everybody sorry for the long wait time I've been busy with school and such. I've recently crossed the 20k word mark for my story, a rather big thing for me in addition at the time I'm writing this my story is ranked #20 in both favorites and follows and number 24 for reviews this is out of 433 stories. I would like to thank all the people who have favorited and followed my story as well as everyone who has reviewed. Also I've gotten a few comments on occasional bad grammar, as much as I'd like to fix this I actually have ADD so It's rather hard for me to correct something I already know so please feel free to point out any grammar mistakes you see. Anyway here's the next chapter ^_^)**

* * *

Kirito's men reached the front gate of the home city on the 8th floor after about an hour of walking. As they passed through the front gate Kirito allowed himself to relax slightly. He then put on a confident visage as his men change into a more impressive if less effective formation. Kirito knew it was important to keep up their public face if only to give others hope that they would be free one day. Not to mention he didn't really mind a little hero worship here and there … *cough* I mean it's important that they have someone to look up to for Uhh inspiration and all that.

That aside as they walked through the town they attracted an enormous amount of attention the merchants and crafters standing at their stalls stood a bit taller and looked at them hopefully. It was well known that the Black Mark had a huge sum of money in their coffers and often purchased items that could not be forged like crystals and rare drops from the market as well as raw materials. The Black Mark had a unique economic structure which mostly relied on the lack of corruption in the guild.

The tax rate was rather high at a massive 50 % meaning for every 100 col each person earned 50 would go to the guild. In return for this guild members received something sort of like pay checks every week. The guards and others who did not get out grinding very often would receive money for their work even if they didn't grind that week. This also applied to the support classes like informants. 60% of the taxes went toward paychecks the remaining was used to support various utilities in the guild such as buying raw materials and such. Most of the money stayed in the guild as most of the time the equipment people needed was purchasable in the guilds shop where Lisbeth made high quality weapons and armor constantly.

The guild members had also found that they could sell their old weapons to people on the lower floors for a good sum henceforth bringing back the money used to buy materials over time. This cycle added to the money they earned selling the crops from the farm left them with a ridiculous amount of cash sitting around. This meant the majority of the rare drops in Aincraid were easily purchased. Kirito had also gotten several requests from guilds to purchase his blade for ridiculous sums. Although no one knew the exact details behind his sword barring Argo and the girls who had at one point refused to speak to him till he explained it. The siege lasted for 3 days before they caved and began begging him to tell. Kirito prided himself on his will but the combined power of 6 pairs of puppy dog eyes proved too great a challenge and he caved.

And so he had explained its capabilities and how he had got it although he left out the fact that he was at less than 50 health points by the end of the fight. Although his attempts not to worry them were ruined by Argo who remembered the dudgeon by which he spoke from the beta. She then explained the reasons why no one had beaten it before while glaring at Kirito clearly angry at him for taking such a risk. Once she finished explaining Kirito now had 6 pairs of angry eyes aimed at him. As one they spoke yelling at him fierce expressions on their faces.

"Idiot!" their voices screeched.

"I knew you were dense but really?" Sinon said glaring at him

"You could have gotten yourself killed Kirito" Argo agreed, for once using his real name (well kind of anyway) proving she was really angry this time.

The girls had been furious at him for the next few days before they calmed down. Kirito sighed smiling slightly before returning to his neutral face. With the pedestal he had placed himself on in the real world as well as the age difference due to him skipping grades Kirito had all but forgotten what it was like to feel truly accepted. To be part of a group that truly cared about its members, but that was what the Black Mark had become.

While maintaining their cool and collected attitude on the outside the Black Mark had a surprisingly relaxed and almost family like atmosphere on the inside. It was not surprising that their members were rather close as relying on each other in combat and life or death situations tended to bond people together.

They had also accepted him as the leader surprisingly easily despite being only around 14 and a half. Even if they didn't know his exact age it was pretty obvious that he was at most 16. The majority of the members of his guild were at least in their mid-20's but they seemed to have little to no problem with the fact that the more powerful half of their governing body consisted completely of teenagers. Klein and his friends had formed a party and only lead the group in the case that Kirito and the girls were absent for whatever reason. Agil was the only adult who was actively involved in the running of the guild managing their economic functions like the purchase of goods and such.

Snapping out of his musing Kirito turned around and looked the members of his guild he then spoke in his 'badass voice' as dubbed by Argo anyway "The rest of the day is yours, spend it how you will."

The assembled members just nodded before heading of off in groups of twos and threes to various parts of town. Kirito then teleported back to the fortress of the black mark. As the blue lights faded he stepped off of the stone circle and walked towards his fortress allowing his demeanor to relax. Once inside he went to the most recently renovated room in his guildhall, the Dudgeon.

Lit by torches on the walls the area retained a dark dankness to it. As he walked his boots clacked on the ground echoing throughout the small labyrinth. Turning into one of the side tunnels he entered the first cell block. Then he heard voices ahead.

"Yeah that kid thinks he so tough but when it came down to it he didn't have the nerve." A familiar voice said.

Kirito smirked before quieting his footsteps and activating his hiding skill, sure enough when he turned the last corner he saw the red head player killer leaning his back against the bars

"He ambushed us with 15 guys and acts like he's a one man army" The red headed man said arrogantly as Kirito drew closer and closer to his back still hiding in the shadows "If I had fought him one on one it would have been easy."

Kirito reached the man's back still undetected "iss that ssso?" he repeated his earlier statement his mouth just behind the man's ear, this of course caused the man to shriek loudly in a rather girlish manor. He dove away from the bars and backing away clearly terrified. "Actually the only reason I left you alive is because I need information."

"Why would we tell you anything? It's not like you would free us if we did." one of the other pker said while looking at the red headed pker and shaking his head before looking at Kirito defiantly. "If you kill us it'll wreck your reputation" he continued confidently

"You're absolutely right." Kirito said keeping up his sadistic demeanor "I can't kill you, hell you can't even feel pain from injuries here." Kirito's smirk widened further.

The man looked unnerved but then continued attempting to stay confident "there's nothing you can do to us" he said voice growing firm.

Kirito's grin grew more sadistic "You exactly right and that exactly what I'm going to do to you, nothing" at this the men grew confused "I won't send guards or anyone here, I won't even tell anyone you're here" one of the men paled realizes the implications of what Kirito had said.

"W-wait if no one knows were here who's going to bring us food?" he said alarmed

"Food?" Kirito said "You wanted me to do nothing to you didn't you?" he continued his voice dripping with sadistic humor "And it's not like it'll kill you" he finished smirking. Despite the fact that it wouldn't kill you being true he knew the game had a hunger system causing you're body to feel intense hunger pangs after a day or two of not eating. This was the only way to feel pain in SAO. With this in mind Kirito turned around to leave

"W-wait!? Where are you going?" the red headed man said as the situation finally set in.

"I'm leaving," he said looking back "after all" he said slowly and sadistically "you asked me to leave you alone"

"W-wait what do you want to know!" one of the other men said hurriedly.

"Oh it doesn't matter after all as he said" Kirito said gesturing to the pker he had talked to earlier "why would you tell me anything." He continued to walk away ignoring the pkers cries. As he exited the cell block he allowed himself a smirk before turning towards the exit

"I'd give them a few days or a week at most" a voice called out from behind him

Kirito turned around to find Sinon leaning against a pillar next to the entrance to the first cell block.

"Oh, eh that was…" Kirito began as Sinon approached him

Sinon suddenly put 2 fingers over his mouth silencing him "That wasn't all faked, I don't know what happened or why but I won't pressure you." She said staring in to his eyes.

Kirito opened his mouth to argue, to deny what she had said, before letting his mouth fall close. He sighed knowing she was right he opened his mouth again "yeah, you're right." She nodded as if confirming something.

"If you need someone to talk to my door is always open" she said turning to leave

"The same goes for you," Kirito said suddenly. At his words Sinon froze before Kirito continued "you're the first person to notice in a long time" he said "which can only mean one thing." He continued as he walked past her "you're probably the same as me." He looked back at her smiling sadly.

Sinon blinked and looked down feeling ashamed when she felt a hand on her head. Looking up she saw Kirito standing in front of her "But that doesn't change the fact that you're one of my closest friends." He said smiling gently "and I'm sure the others feel the same way," he continued "we're pretty much a family now Sinon" he said smiling a bit more earnestly now "You, me, Silica, Asuna, Lisbeth, Yukki, and even Argo when she's not blackmailing people" he continued "we're in this together okay?" he finished.

Sinon blushed slightly before replying earnestly "Yeah, thanks Kirito" she sighed "but I'm supposed to be the one comforting you not the other way around" she said pouting slightly

Kirito smiled again before turning to go "Oh and Sinon?" Kirito said seriously

"What?" she asked

"Thanks" he replied smiling before disappearing into the darkness of the dudgeon.

* * *

**(A/N : So we get our first hint at Kirito's new and more sketchy past as well as the second installment of what might become a running gag in my story :p ) **


	13. The Darkness on the Horizon

_**(A/N: Sorry for not updating in forever finals are coming up and I've been sick, which is obviously a horrible combo once summer comes around and school is out I'll be able to update more frequently so until then please be patient.)**_

**-Unknown location**

* * *

A man in dark clothing hurried through the halls a brutal two-hand sword strapped across his back. He reached a large door knocking against it heavily crying out loudly "Sir it's urgent please open up."

The door unlocked with a click and the man opened it quickly moving inside.

"What is it?" a rather angry man with a cactus like hairstyle said glaring.

"Zarcin's squadron has been captured by the black mark sir!" the hooded man spoke quickly not eager to provoke Kibaou's wrath.

"Who the fuck's Zarcin?" Kibaou replied his scowl deepening "cause I'm gonna fucking murder him!"

"How were they captured" a calm yet cold voice spoke from behind Kibaou.

The man gulped at being addressed before speaking "they were ambushed on the way up sir, the Black Mark was waiting in ambush inside one of the boss rooms sir." He stuttered looking at the ground.

"Their leader is smart" the man known infamously as PoH stated calmly. "he has figured out how we move about and is hunting accordingly, but that won't save him in the long run we have the location of his base and it's only a matter of time before those fools crack so we either move our base or destroy theirs."

"Don't we have any spies in there guild? Can't we just get them to give those idiots some teleport crystals?" Kibaou asked arrogantly.

"We could," PoH replied "if, in fact, we had any spies." he finished bluntly

"Why the hell don't we they're a huge guild and that fucking brats gonna have hell to pay when I catch him." Kibaou raged.

"It's not for lack of trying" PoH replied "their very method of recruiting is actually quite full proof. They don't recruit you just for being strong, you need to have relatively good morals and such and I have good reason to believe that their informants do thorough background checks, and that insufferable rat of theirs probably keeps a running tab of most of the front liners and mid leveled players." PoH finished a hint of spite creeping into his voice.

"uuh sir?" the hooded man spoke uncertainly "don't they have a fortress with a bottlenecked wall or something?"

"Yes they do" PoH replied "and in normal circumstances it would be suicide, but…"

The hooded man gulped "But what, sir?"

"They still cling tightly to their 'human morals', they'll hesitate just before the kill allowing us to strike them down. And that defensive wall relies mainly on ranged power something that is rather rare in Aincraid. Unfortunately the highest level ranged player also happens to be one of their founding members, but other than that they only have people with dagger throwing skills and such. The bottleneck is a double edged sword as we will be able to retreat and heal out of the line of fire quite easily."

"So let me get this straight were gonna charge right in there and wreck their base?" Kibaou said excitedly, bloodlust creeping into his voice. He then frowned "but wait don't they have a teleport or something in there?"

"It doesn't work while the base is under attack" PoH replied evenly

"Hehe well then, what the hell are we waiting for?" Kibaou said smirking cruelly "Lets bring that brat and his lapdogs back to reality."

"Indeed" PoH said smiling and looking at the cloaked man "tell the men to ready for battle. It's show time."

* * *

**Black Mark base: lounge **

Kirito yawned slightly as he became aware. He shifted himself slightly on the… couch? It certainly didn't feel like one anyway it was really soft and warm in fact it almost felt like he was lying on….. damn it. He opened his eyes looking around rapidly and sure enough he found himself being held in someone's lap. That someone of course was Argo.

"Argo… what are you doing?" Kirito asked in a strained voice.

"Using Kii-bou as a blanket" she replied as if it was perfectly logical.

Kirito made to stand up but Argo kept him down using her moderate strength stat to keep her arms on his chest and head respectively. Kirito made to use his much greater strength stat when Argo again spoke.

"Silly Kii-bou I wouldn't do that if I were you." She said smirking evilly "if you use too much strength it'll be counted as a crime by the system."

"But you're using more than the strength limit! Why aren't you getting a criminal charge?" Kirito said indignantly.

"Because I'm just using my strength to stay in the same place while you're trying to use it to move me therefore making it a crime." She replied "it's a nice little loophole isn't it?" she said smirking.

Kirito sighed heavily "Wouldn't this at least count as harassment? Where's the damn popup?" he complain trying again to stand up and failing.

Argo smirked "In order to prevent people from unjustly jailing people in dudgeons and such if you fall on someone both of you are exempt from it, although if Kii-bou's hands were to make contact with something a bit more… adult that would be neutralized." She teased.

Kirito sighed heavily before opening his menu and flicking through the menu till he reached his friends list. He then scrolled through the modest list and highlighted Argo's name.

"What are you doing?" Argo said slightly nervous.

"Defriending you" Kirito said simply.

"W-what w-wait a minute Kii-bou I'm letting you go! See not holding you or anything! It's okay now right? Right? Kii-bou?" Argo cried out letting him go quickly.

Kirito quickly jumped up his hand still hovering over the Defriend option as he looked at Argo he frowned and pressed a button causing Argo to flinch, until that is she got a popup. New message received sender: Kirito subject: the look on your face.

Not even bothering to read the message Argo looked up at the clearly amused Kirito and said "That's not funny Kii-bou I'm supposed to be the only one to tease in this relationship." This caused Kirito to sweat drop at the matter of fact speech she was using.

"Whatever" Kirito replied shrugging "I'm gonna go out grinding soon so see you later."

Argo suddenly tensed "with who?" she said her tone barely equal.

"I'm going with Asuna and Yukki, why?" Kirito replied.

Argo internally cursed; while all of the girls were good friends none were as close as Asuna and Yukki were. Their relationship was such that if one of the two couldn't get Kirito they would prefer that the other did as compared to another one of the girls. This of course means they often worked together in their attempts to gain Kirito's favor and were all the more effective because of it.

Argo quickly opened her menu and sent off rapid messages to Sinon, Silica and Lizbeth of the recent occurrences leaving out of course Kirito's new found familiarity with her lap. Within second the door to the lounge slammed open "Kirito can we grind with you?" Sinon said acting as the spokesperson for the 2 other girls who were rapidly nodding their heads behind her.

"Sorry Sinon but Kirito's grinding with us today" a new voice said turning around they saw Asuna standing next to Yukki.

Yukki then proceeded to march towards Kirito gripping one of his arms and smiling before proceeding to drag him across the room "come on Kirito" the girl called still dragging him "we should head off now."

"I'm coming, calm down." He said as he was dragged across the room oblivious to the dark looks Yukki was getting from 4 of the 5 other girls in the room.

"Let me just pick up some food and I'll be ready to go" Kirito said attempting to free his arm.

"Don't worry about it" Yukki replied "me and Asuna already put together a picnic basket" she said shooting a victorious look back at the rest of the girls who glared in response.

Asuna also looking rather smug walked up and, grabbing Kirito's other arm, said clearly "we prepared several sandwiches, your favorite kind too" she said smiling brightly.

"Mm so whens lunch again? Can it be now please?" Kirito said immediately brightening at the thought of his one true love, sandwiches. Okay maybe I'm exaggerating a bit there but whatever those sandwiches are too good Kirito thought to himself.

Yukki and Asuna smirked knowing Kirito would do essentially whatever they asked now.

The rest of the girls just frowned Yukki and Asuna had both trained up their cooking skills something none of the other 4 girls had done. The result was that they were getting a lot of extra attention from Kirito because as they all knew the best way to get to Kirito's heart was through his stomach. That's not to say that he was the type to love someone for their cooking alone it was just a way to get a foothold.

The girls looked at each other nodding they had to remedy the situation else Yukki and Asuna would get ahead of them. As Kirito left with Yukki and Asuna Argo spoke "we need to raise our cooking level if we want to have any chance" she said.

Suddenly Klein who had been sitting of to the side spoke out "So what you're saying is that it's time for you girls to get back in the Kitchen?" he said sniggering before cutting off abruptly as 4 killing intents were focused on him causing him to start shivering.

After they had dealt with Klein the Sinon spoke "let's just find out what foods give the best XP per level and get a bunch of ingredients to make them." And so the girls went off mission in mind.

As for Klein, well let's just say that those girls have some nasty claws. And as for the criminal punishment system, well it gets scared sometimes too right?


	14. The Darkness at your door

**(A/N: School is finally out meaning I have a shit load of time to do whatever the heck I want including writing! I'll be trying to get out a least one chapter every week or two now. If I don't make the deadline please send some reviews and yell at me to get my ass in gear! On the other hand thanks for all the reviews and stuff they really help motivate me. Well I won't keep babbling anymore, on to the chapter! Enjoy!)**

* * *

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" he panted "Almost there!" Kirito yelled out misleadingly as he ran to catch up to the over excited pair of girls waiting impatiently at the teleport "It's strange though Lizbeth doesn't usually take that long to repair gear, but I guess she's just tired." Kirito mused as he reached teleport before remembering to stop panting which had just been a reflexive response to running at full speed in the first place.

Asuna and Yukki shared glances immediately understanding what had happened, sharing a dark look they both began plotting their vengeance.

It had taken Kirito an hour to get ready much to his surprise, all of his stuff had been misplaced or not where he remembered leaving it. Argo, Sinon, Lizbeth and Silica had tried to help him find his equipment and kept finding it in places he could have sworn he had looked in already. Shrugging it off walked to the center of the teleport and with a word the three of them vanished into a beam of light.

As the blue light faded Kirito, Asuna, and Yukki found themselves in the center of the mid-sized town which was the main city on the tenth floor. The three of them instantly adopted their various 'business' personas Asuna and Yukki took the appearance of ice queen body guards whilst Kirito took up his princely demeanor.

The square grew quieter until it was just the sound of Npcs bustling around as all the players in the square stared at them in reverence. Kirito nodded to Asuna and Yukki and with that the three of them moved off at a steady pace heading towards the edge of town. As they reach the edge of town they sped up disappearing into the thick jungle **(A/n: I'm aware that this is not the real biome of floor ten but just roll with it okay?) **

They had only gone a few feet into the jungle when they dropped their personas returning to a group of 3 friends on an outing, or at least that what Kirito thought. The other two were going about planning on how to seduce him (in a good way) or at least improve their relationship with him. Kirito darted forward attacking a tiger like Mob with 3 red eyes, sharp fangs and knifelike claws. He quickly sliced through most of its health with a powerful sword skill causing it to shatter into polygons leaving the 3 of them alone in the small clearing they had stopped in. Kirito was about to move on when he was interrupted by a question from Asuna.

"Lunch time?" she asked smirking and already knowing the answer to her question.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! A million times yes" Kirito instantly replied

Asuna and Yukki shared a knowing smile before Asuna summon a basket from her inventory and setting opening it. Setting the food down on the blanket in the middle of the clearing just which was about 15 feet from the nearest tree plenty of time to get ready if a Mob attacked them. The 3 of them settled down to eat.

Asuna took out Kirito's sandwich from the basket before looking at him, his eyes were locked with an intent only seen in two occasions, In battle and during lunchtime. She smile superiorly speaking "Kirito what do you say?"

"Oh wonderful and benevolent Asuna and kind and saintly Yukki please bestow a sandwich upon an innocent starving teenager?" he said pleadingly.

Asuna looked at Yukki who shrugged and said "good enough for me." Asuna smiled and handed him the sandwich which he took with sparkles in his eyes causing the girls to sweat drop slightly.

* * *

**-Elsewhere- **

"We are ready to move out sir" a man spoke out. He was dressed into dark clothing and wielding a mid-sized broadsword which was currently strapped across his back.

"Good now where the Hell is PoH" Kibaou spoke impatiently.

"He is targeting some members of the guild who are currently not at base sir he said you could lead the assault" the man responded.

Kibaou looked surprised for a second before smirking cruelly "well then let's do this that brat is gonna meet his maker." He paused for a moment smirking before crying out "ATTACK" in a loud voice which echoed around the clearing just in front of the Black Mark's base. Laughing cruelly Kibaou watched as his soldiers rushed forward preparing for a slaughter.

* * *

**-Near Kirito, Asuna and Yukki's location-**

He walked leisurely through the wood towards his target, the man know infamously as PoH paid little attention to the group of 3 Pkers who were following him in a mob, they were just cannon fodder after all.

"We will be on them soon ready yourselves" PoH spoke. The fact was that he didn't care whether they lived or died, they were irrelevant, and the same goes for 2 of the 3 people in the party he was hunting. The only one that mattered was him, one of the few people who had managed to truly peak his interest.

Despite his clearly tender age he carried himself with a strong and imposing manor, in a matter of a few months he had managed to amass the strongest force in Aincraid which was rapidly growing stronger. He had lied to Kibaou when he said that he thought they could win. The very fact was that the Pkers where outmatched but the ones he had sent were just the rank and file Kibaou had been nothing but an amusing fool who he had recently lost interest in. they would all die or be captured but he didn't care.

The arrogant fool would no doubt not notice the fact that out of the pkers under his command 20 were missing. These twenty were the ones he deemed useful, he had long become aware that there were too many pkers, people were much too cautious now a days. Once there were too many not only were there be less prey but the fools would be easily detected and with approximately 700 clearers at or surpassing their level and a great number just barely behind they would be decimated. That fool Zarcin's capture had been the last proof he had needed, he needed to downsize.

Kibaou may have been a fool but he had his uses he was extremely skilled at using fear and hatred to spur people on. He had no doubt that today would lead to the fall of the majority of those weaklings one way or another. If they managed to cripple the Black Mark then well that was an added bonus. As for the black swordsman, well today he would be tested.

* * *

**-With Kirito-**

A chill went down Kirito's spine and he internally tensed while outwardly looking relaxed. Looking up he met eyes with Yukki wordlessly expressing his feeling. Her eyes widened for a moment and then Kirito spoke cheerily "well we better get back to grinding now." He said taking a last bit of his sandwich before tossing it to the side where it shattered into polygons.

Both Yukki and Asuna immediately prepared for battle if it was something that could make Kirito throw away a sandwich that was only half eaten it was no Mob which left only one thing, Pkers.

"Yeah, you're right!" Yukki exclaimed stowing the picnic basket into her into her inventory and standing and drawing her blade in a relaxed manor Kirito stood mirroring her action

"I forget it was that way back to the town right?" Kirito said pointing in the direction when were he had detected the pkers.

"Yeah, I think so anyway." Asuna replied also drawing her blade.

"Impressive" a new voice spoke out. "My sneaking skill is rather high I'm surprised you noticed me," The man laughed slightly as 3 others immerged behind him "but I suppose I should expect that from the legendary Black swordsman." He finished smirking cruelly.

"PoH" Kirito spoke out "if I'm not mistaken" he said while staring coolly at PoH.

"My reputation precedes me" The man replied smirking cruelly at Kirito and his companions.

"I don't suppose you've come to surrender calmly?" Kirito asked his voice neutral

PoH shook his head "I'm Afraid not oh mighty Black Swordsman" he said tauntingly

"I though not" Kirito replied nonplussed "So what do you want?"

"What do I want?" PoH replied "what makes you think I want anything? I could have just come here to kill you?"

"If you were here merely to kill me you would have brought more than 3 people" Kirito replied simply "that or you are an overconfident fool."

PoH laughed "maybe, maybe not, but you forget this isn't a battle against Npcs this is a battle against real humans who die if you reduce their health to zero." PoH said cruelly.

"Your point?" Kirito replied in a cool voice sending chills up the spines of everyone in the clearing though for different reasons.

PoH laughed "verbal quiz ten out of ten" he smirked "Now for the real test!" he yelled as he charged Kirito drawing his knife with a swift motion "DIE!" he roared.


	15. The Darkness in your mind

**(A/N: I'm starting to rewrite some of the earlier chapters in an attempt to improve their quality. Same story just told and described in a slightly different way. If you've got time look back and tell me what you think.)**

Kirito swung his blade up to meet the knife as PoH swung it down. Sparks flew as the blades impacted with each other. Yukki and Asuna moved up to attack the 3 other pkers whom, Kirito mused, were no more than cannon fodder.

"So what do intend to accomplish with this any way?" Kirito asked while dodging to the side before slashing up at PoH managing to get a glancing hit on him.

"What do I intend?" PoH replied smirking as he swung his blade 3 times rapidly scoring a glancing blow on Kirito. "Who knows?"

In his peripheral vision Kirito could just make out Asuna and Yukki fighting with the 3 pkers around 15 feet away. The match was obviously one sided, unlike PoH the other pkers were obviously just rank and file. This of course meant that Asuna and Yukki were rapidly tearing through the pkers health bars.

Kirito redoubled his effort to defeat PoH, he had to finish this quickly; Asuna and Yukki should not have to finish off the Pkers. It was better if their blood was on his hands instead, they were already stained anyway. People their age shouldn't have to kill, but his soul was already tainted and he would do his best to prevent them from sharing the same fate.

PoH was struggling to keep up and was well aware that the only reason he wasn't dead by now was that the risk of swords skills was too great in PvP combat. Despite this he spoke out coolly hoping to throw his opponent off. "You seem comfortable with the idea of killing Kirito-kun" he said mockingly

To his surprise Kirito didn't even blink instead speeding up his attack even more weaving and intricate web of strikes that hit the pker one after another. Kirito didn't speak for a moment before replying "Comfortable? Maybe, but I see it more as the numbness of someone whom has already killed." His voice was cold as ice.

"So you killed before? Well I suppose several of my Pkers have been killed in the past." He said cruelly "so how was it? The thrill of the kill?" he spoke as he his health bar continued to be whittled down, he was desperately hoping to throw Kirito off with his comment.

Kirito was silent for a moment merely striking faster and faster cutting through PoH's health bar which was now hovering around 60%. "Blood" Kirito spoke simply to which PoH blinked in surprise "There was a lot of blood" he said his voice neutral, no PoH realized, it wasn't calm, it was dead.

PoH felt a chill run down his spine as he met Kirito's eyes which stared out at him, emotionless and empty. In that moment he realized that the child, no the swordsman in front of him had seen and done things that no child his age should have to. He smirked and then nodded, he had seen enough. Jumping back and reaching into his pocket he called out "Nicely done Kirito-kun, you've passed with flying colors" before holding up a teleport crystal and, before Kirito could stop him, teleported away.

"Boss?" on the Pkers called out surprised as his leader disappeared.

Kirito grimaced before turning and charging towards the remaining pkers preparing to attack. Their health bars were all low with only around 40 % remaining in them. Kirito joined the two girls in attacking them.

"Wait, I surrender!" one them called out as he fell to the ground Yukki stumbled awkwardly stopping her attack. The Pker smirked as he surged up attempting to capitalize on her stumble; his blade charged a sword skill aiming directly at her exposed face going for the kill.

Kirito struck him quickly with a sword skill tearing through the last of his health. The pker looked horrified as he met Kirito's eyes for a moment before he shattered into polygons. The remaining two pkers backed up looking terrified at Kirito's lack of hesitation.

"You killed him! You fucking murdering bastard!" One of the pkers yelled out failing to realize the irony of his words

"I value the lives of my friends infinitely more that I value yours, surrender or die." His voice was cold and the pkers realized a chill going down their spines that his words weren't a threat, they were a statement. They dropped their blades without a second through and Kirito tossed two prison teleport crystals at them and they vanished immediately in an explosion of polygons.

Kirito stood there for a moment his back to Asuna and Yukki his hands hanging limply before speaking "I'm sorry you had to see that." He said his voice shaking slightly.

"Kirito" Asuna whispered looking at him sadly her voice sympathetic.

Yukki on the other hand was frozen shocked by the most recent reminder of her mortality. Shaking off her bewilderment she walked up to Kirito. She stood there for a moment before rapidly moving forward and wrapping her arms around him pressing her face into his back. "Thank you" she said simply

Asuna moved up quickly embracing Kirito as well. A single tear fell down his cheek, that single tear was soon joined by another as he began crying in their arms.

**-Meanwhile-**

Sinon loosed another arrow aiming at the mass of pkers attempting to fight their way to the front of the battlements. A group of 20 players formed a defensive line just in front of the Guard house wall. When the pkers had attack they had immediately realized that they had no real ranged combat power and they had chosen to take the fight to the pkers forcing them back outside of the gate. Klein and his squad were leading the defense alongside Argo, Lizbeth and Silica whom despite her small stature was a skilled fighter in her own right.

They outmatched the Pkers in every way; they were higher leveled, better equipped and more skilled. But there was one issue, the fact that these weren't monsters that would just respawn if killed. These were people no matter how twisted or cruel they were. So while they weren't taking any casualties they weren't getting anywhere. If someone on their side was low on hp they could just slip behind the defensive line for a moment and heal but the same went for their enemy. It was a stalemate.

No, Sinon realized, it wasn't, the pkers would take any chance they could to kill them and they couldn't, no rather they wouldn't take the same opportunities. She felt a chill run down her spin as she shot off another arrow; it was kill or be killed, but could she? Could she take another life? Could she steel herself and let her arrow fly knowing what the consequences were?

With these dark thoughts racing through her mind Sinon continued to release arrow after arrow on her enemies.

**-In front of the Black Mark Base-**

"What's the situation?" Kibaou yelled angrily to the man who had arrived to report the battle's progress.

"It's a stalemate sir" the pker said quickly "they won't kill us and we haven't managed to kill any of them yet either."

"Why the hell haven't you managed to kill anyone yet? Are you all a bunch of incompetent shit-stains?" Kibaou yelled at the man.

The man flinched and replied "They have a defensive line set up, anytime someone gets below 50% health or so they retreat and heal sir" he explained "In addition several of their tanks have a low level battle healing skill active."

"Where the hell is PoH? He's the one who always thinks up all the fancy plans" Kibaou snarled before continuing with spite "He probably went and got himself killed, dumb shit."

**-With Kirito- **

Kirito wiped his eyes as the tears stopped falling. He wasn't someone who cried easily but the combined force of the guilt at what he had done and the relief that Yukki and Asuna didn't seem to care had ended up being too much. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he spoke "we should get back now" he said his voice steadier than it had been a few minutes ago.

Yukki and Asuna nodded glad that Kirito seemed to have recovered a bit. They open their inventory and each pulled out a teleport crystal. Normally they wouldn't waste it on something this mundane but they both felt Kirito was still a bit too unstable to handle walking through town.

Kirito mimicked their action pulling out a teleport crystal and prepared to use it. Before activating the crystal he spoke "Could you not tell the others what happened? I don't really want to worry them at this point and I should be able to get over it soon."

"Are you sure Kirito?" Yukki asked "no one will think badly of you for it." She finished clearly concerned.

Kirito nodded "I just need some time to myself before I tell anyone else." He said

Asuna and Yukki both nodded and Kirito brought his teleport crystal up and spoke in a slightly shaky voice "Teleport: Fortified mansion" and waited to burst into polygons.

Nothing happened and they all froze when a popup appeared in front of Kirito.

**Warning: Base under attack, teleport not available**

"Shit."


	16. The Darkness in your Soul

**(A/N: I am a terrible person… I said I would try to update weekly and it's been what? a month? Since my last update? I do apologize for this and I can only say that it is due to my personal inability to sit down for more than 20 minutes without starting to get horrifically bored. It may actually be better when I'm in school since at that time I'm on medicine for my A.D.D. and hence I can sit still for a reasonable amount of time without starting to twitch like some aggravated centipede. I found one in my room the last time I had enough attention span to write and spent the next 30 minutes trying to kill the damn thing before it started reproducing in my mattress, in the end I think one of my cats killed it and subsequently ate it… least I sort hope they did… otherwise it's still here…. Waiting …. Watching …. Plotting … okay maybe not but you get the point. Also just as a note to someone who wondered how Kirito could hide that fact that he killed someone, since the player he killed was an orange player he doesn't become one its only if you attack a green player that you become orange.)**

* * *

"Shit" Kirito spoke this one word into the silence before he snapped to attention and began yelling orders "Asuna! Yukki! You to go rally the other guilds, I'll head back to base on foot to assess the situation" he spoke his voice tempered with determination with just a hint a worry.

The girls nodded knowing the importance of gathering reinforcements quickly although that didn't stop them from worrying about Kirito.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Yukki asked worriedly

Kirito just nodded "yeah I'll be fine" he said and spoke loudly in a clear voice "Teleport fourth floor!" and shattered into polygons.

The two girls looked at each other, nodded, then simultaneously used their teleport crystals and disappeared the only evidence that anyone had ever been there being a sword that lay abandoned on the ground.

* * *

-**Meanwhile-**

* * *

"Why aren't we making any progress god damn it!" yelled an angry cactus headed man.

His aid gulped slightly looking nervous "they appear to have a large stockpile of healing potions and a collection of various paralysis inducing poisons sir. Even though they only last for five minutes and they usually can't get more than 20 of us at one time it stops us from gaining any momentum sir."

The human-cactus hybrid growled before yelling "fine if you incompetent shit-stains can't even kill one fucking person in half a fucking hour then I'll have to do it myself" he growled looking around at his personal guard "let's go! What the Fuck are you waiting for?"

They all lined up behind as he stalked into the beginning of the canyon heading towards the sounds of battle

* * *

**-15 minutes later-**

* * *

"Shit" Sinon said for the tenth time. The battle had begun to shift into their favor slightly as they got warmed up and one their guild members had come up with the idea of targeting their enemies' weapons to leave them unable to keep fighting effectively. This had caused a boost in morale as they finally saw a way of winning namely to make their enemies incapable of dealing enough damage to actually be dangerous and then capturing them with brute strength. But unfortunately that had changed when he had shown up at first she had been surprised, not that he was a pker that much was known but by the fact that he had actually shown up on the battle field. And of course shortly after clouds had started to roll in dark and ominous.

Of course she realized he wasn't actually fighting a few seconds later and was just yelling at other people violently which, unfortunately, actually seemed to motivated the pkers and as a result they were rapidly running out of healing crystals and potions. And she herself was running out of arrows although she could probably get some more in the armory she was nervous about what would happened if she was watching and began being more careful with shots.

"Oh Kirito" she though "you picked a horrid day to take a break." Not that she really blamed him remotely for their current situation. Firing off another arrow she heard a scream quickly turned to sight a sight that made her blood run cold. Silica had been knocked over her health dangerously in the red her shield had been knocked to the side and a pker was about to finished her off with a sword skill. Without a second though she brought her hand up to her quiver, her blood froze as she found it empty.

The world seemed to slow as the pkers blade glowed and he started forward the entire battle field had grown silent in an instant and as they all watched powerless to interfere. Suddenly a streak of light flew from behind the pkers hitting the would be killer in the back of the neck. His health drop to zero and he manage a horrified expression right before he exploded into polygons. The streak of light fell to the ground landing with a small noise.

Sinon recognized the item instantly, it was a throwing pick. She then heard something painfully obvious in the complete silence that blanketed the battle field, the sound of boots walking forward on gravel, everyone stared gaping. Walking slowly through the mountain path towards the base was Kirito another throwing pick in his hand as he slowly walked forward. The shadow of his hair covered his eyes making it impossible to get a look at his face.

* * *

**-POV switch-**

* * *

He had thrown the pick without hesitation knowing what the result would be. After the battle was over he would most likely be wracked by guilt for the 2 people he had already killed and the god knows how many he would soon have to. But for now, his survival instinct had kicked in and the last thing on his mind was remorse. He then spoke in a flat voice that was as emotionless as it was chilling

"Surrender now or else I cannot guarantee your survival" he spoke his head facing Kibaou.

His words seemed to snapped everyone out of their shocked induced paralysis as the fight started up again with the members of the Black mark reinvigorated by the appearance of their leader and the pkers more desperate than ever to finish this off now aware that there was someone who would kill them with little to no hesitation if given the chance.

"Kill that god damn brat!" Kibaou yelled point at Kirito while yelling at his personal guard. 5 of which charged towards Kirito who looked at them calmly

It's happening again Kirito though idly as the world seemed to slow down although by this time he knew it was him speeding up rather than the world slowing down. He had discovered this ability when he was 8 years old during **that** incident. Since then he had used it several times although only a few times had been on purpose. The world was moving at a snail's pace to him and he drew his sword, scowling slightly at his own slowness which was actually just his increased perception making him appear slow, he then moved forward easily dodging the sloppy sword skills sent at him by the pkers he sliced one arm of one of the pkers in a shockingly casual manor.

He three strikes later the pkers other arm and the arms of the man next to him fell to the ground and shattered into polygons.

"Pathetic" Kirito spoke his own voice sounding drawn out and slow his vocal cords somehow adjusting his speech to regular speed in order to prevent it from sounding rushed and garbled. The two pkers fell back the majority of their health bars gone and all hope of fighting gone for several hours. 2 of the 3 remaining pkers looked on nervously; well aware that if their fellow pkers had been just a bit weaker that those strikes would have killed them and all three stopped charging for a moment two of them looking nervous while the 3rd seemed unaware of the implications of Kirito's attacks.

"What are you waiting for? I don't have all day you know" Kirito spoke before dashing forward in blur of speed (from the pkers perspectives anyway). He attacked his swings far too fast for them to do anything but put up a shoddy defense which he broke through with ease, as he severed the arms of 2 of the other pkers the last one smirked and attacking yelling out.

"You should stop trying to act tough! You haven't even tried to kill us yet that first time must have been out of reflex!" he yelled charging at Kirito didn't move for a second and then moved forward in a blur, there was a streak of light. The pkers health bar hit zero his eyes widened in shock as his arms fell in front of him shattering before he too disappeared in a flash of light.

The pkers attacking the base backed off a bit and the fighting paused. Even Kibaou looked nervous 2 dead and 4 disabled in less than a minute after Kirito's arrival. All done in what seemed like a casual and careless manor as if they were nothing but bugs beneath his feet. Many of the pkers shivered and looked nervous with one thought flashing through their minds 'Is the true power of SAO's strongest player?' it was both awe inspiring and terrifying.

"I'll give you one more chance" Kirito spoke "Surrender or die" his solemn words once again carrying across the battle field his eyes still hidden in the shadow left by his hair giving him a dark almost demonic look.

Kibaou was terrified 'he's only one brat! He shouldn't make any difference! Or at least not this much of one!

There was a loud crash and in the normally calm and peaceful 4th floor it began to rain, thunder sparking above them as the drops fell. As the water fell Kibaou felt something he hadn't felt since he had joined laughing coffin, fear, a cold suffocating fear, and above that, a horrifying sense of insignificance.


End file.
